Upon a late September day forty-nine years and some months before
that upon which Gabe Bearse came to Jed Winslow's windmill shop in
Orham with the news of Leander Babbitt's enlistment, Miss Floretta
Thompson came to that village to teach the "downstairs" school.
Miss Thompson was an orphan. Her father had kept a small drug
store in a town in western Massachusetts. Her mother had been a
clergyman's daughter. Both had died when she was in her 'teens.
Now, at twenty, she came to Cape Cod, pale, slim, with a wealth of
light brown hair and a pair of large, dreamy brown eyes. Her taste
in dress was peculiar, even eccentric, and Orham soon discovered
that she, herself, was also somewhat eccentric.
As a schoolteacher she was not an unqualified success. The
"downstairs" curriculum was not extensive nor very exacting, but it
was supposed to impart to the boys and girls of from seven to
twelve a rudimentary knowledge of the three R's and of geography.
In the first two R's, "readin' and 'ritin'," Miss Thompson was
proficient. She wrote a flowery Spencerian, which was beautifully
"shaded" and looked well on the blackboard, and reading was the
dissipation of her spare moments. The third "R," 'rithmetic, she
loathed.
Youth, even at the ages of from seven to twelve, is only too
proficient in learning to evade hard work. The fact that Teacher
took no delight in traveling the prosaic highways of addition,
multiplication and division, but could be easily lured to wander
the flowery lanes of romantic fiction, was soon grasped by the
downstairs pupils. The hour set for recitation by the first class
in arithmetic was often and often monopolized by a hold-over of the
first class in reading, while Miss Floretta, artfully spurred by
questions asked by the older scholars, rhapsodized on the beauties
of James Fenimore Cooper's "Uncas," or Dickens' "Little Nell," or
Scott's "Ellen." Some of us antiques, then tow-headed little
shavers in the front seats, can still remember Miss Floretta's
rendition of the lines:
"And Saxon--I am Roderick Dhu!"
The extremely genteel, not to say ladylike, elocution of the
Highland chief and the indescribable rising inflection and emphasis
on the "I."
These literary rambles had their inevitable effect, an effect
noted, after a time, and called to the attention of the school
committee by old Captain Lycurgus Batcheldor, whose two
grandchildren were among the ramblers.
"Say," demanded Captain Lycurgus, "how old does a young-one have to
be afore it's supposed to know how much four times eight is? My
Sarah's Nathan is pretty nigh ten and HE don't know it. Gave me
three answers he did; first that 'twas forty-eight, then that 'twas
eighty-four and then that he'd forgot what 'twas. But I noticed he
could tell me a whole string about some feller called Lockintar or
Lochinvar or some such outlandish name, and not only his name but
where he came from, which was out west somewheres. A poetry piece
'twas; Nate said the teacher'd been speakin' it to 'em. I ain't
got no objection to speakin' pieces, but I do object to bein' told
that four times eight is eighty-four, 'specially when I'm buyin'
codfish at eight cents a pound. I ain't on the school committee,
but if I was--"
So the committee investigated and when Miss Thompson's year was up
and the question arose as to her re-engagement, there was
considerable hesitancy. But the situation was relieved in a most
unexpected fashion. Thaddeus Winslow, first mate on the clipper
ship, "Owner's Favorite," at home from a voyage to the Dutch East
Indies, fell in love with Miss Floretta, proposed, was accepted and
married her.
It was an odd match: Floretta, pale, polite, impractical and
intensely romantic; Thad, florid, rough and to the point. Yet the
married pair seemed to be happy together. Winslow went to sea on
several voyages and, four years after the marriage, remained at
home for what, for him, was a long time. During that time a child,
a boy, was born.
The story of the christening of that child is one of Orham's pet
yarns even to this day. It seems that there was a marked
disagreement concerning the name to be given him. Captain Thad had
had an Uncle Edgar, who had been very kind to him when a boy. The
captain wished to name his own youngster after this uncle. But
Floretta's heart was set upon "Wilfred," her favorite hero of
romance being Wilfred of Ivanhoe. The story is that the parents
being no nearer an agreement on the great question, Floretta made a
proposal of compromise. She proposed that her husband take up his
stand by the bedroom window and the first male person he saw
passing on the sidewalk below, the name of that person should be
given to their offspring; a sporting proposition certainly. But
the story goes on to detract a bit from the sporting element by
explaining that Mrs. Winslow was expecting a call at that hour from
the Baptist minister, and the Baptist minister's Christian name was
"Clarence," which, if not quite as romantic as Wilfred, is by no
means common and prosaic. Captain Thad, who had not been informed
of the expected ministerial call and was something of a sport
himself, assented to the arrangement. It was solemnly agreed that
the name of the first male passer-by should be the name of the new
Winslow. The captain took up his post of observation at the window
and waited.
He did not have to wait long. Unfortunately for romance, the
Reverend Clarence was detained at the home of another parishioner a
trifle longer than he had planned and the first masculine to pass
the Winslow home was old Jedidah Wingate, the fish peddler. Mrs.
Diadama Busteed, who was acting as nurse in the family and had been
sworn in as witness to the agreement between husband and wife,
declared to the day of her death that that death was hastened by
the shock to her nervous and moral system caused by Captain Thad's
language when old Jedidah hove in sight. He vowed over and over
again that he would be everlastingly condemned if he would label a
young-one of his with such a crashety-blank-blanked outrage of a
name as "Jedidah." "Jedidiah" was bad enough, but there WERE a few
Jedidiahs in Ostable County, whereas there was but one Jedidah.
Mrs. Winslow, who did not fancy Jedidah any more than her husband
did, wept; Captain Thad's profanity impregnated the air with
brimstone. But they had solemnly sworn to the agreement and Mrs.
Busteed had witnessed it, and an oath is an oath. Besides, Mrs.
Winslow was inclined to think the whole matter guided by Fate, and,
being superstitious as well as romantic, feared dire calamity if
Fate was interfered with. It ended in a compromise and, a
fortnight later, the Reverend Clarence, keeping his countenance
with difficulty, christened a red-faced and protesting infant
"Jedidah Edgar Wilfred Winslow."
Jedidah Edgar Wilfred grew up. At first he was called "Edgar" by
his father and "Wilfred" by his mother. His teachers, day school
and Sunday school, called him one or the other as suited their
individual fancies. But his schoolmates and playfellows, knowing
that he hated the name above all else on earth, gleefully hailed
him as "Jedidah." By the time he was ten he was "Jed" Winslow
beyond hope of recovery. Also it was settled locally that he was
"queer"--not "cracked" or "lacking," which would have implied that
his brain was affected--but just "queer," which meant that his ways
of thinking and acting were different from those of Orham in
general.
His father, Captain Thaddeus, died when Jed was fifteen, just
through the grammar school and ready to enter the high. He did not
enter; instead, the need of money being pressing, he went to work
in one of the local stores, selling behind the counter. If his
father had lived he would, probably, have gone away after finishing
high school and perhaps, if by that time the mechanical ability
which he possessed had shown itself, he might even have gone to
some technical school or college. In that case Jed Winslow's
career might have been very, very different. But instead he went
to selling groceries, boots, shoes, dry goods and notions for Mr.
Seth Wingate, old Jedidah's younger brother.
As a grocery clerk Jed was not a success, neither did he shine as a
clerk in the post office, nor as an assistant to the local
expressman. In desperation he began to learn the carpenter's trade
and, because he liked to handle tools, did pretty well at it. But
he continued to be "queer" and his absent-minded dreaminess was in
evidence even then.
"I snum I don't know what to make of him," declared Mr. Abijah
Mullett, who was the youth's "boss." "Never know just what he's
goin' to do or just what he's goin' to say. I says to him
yesterday: 'Jed,' says I, 'you do pretty well with tools and wood,
considerin' what little experience you've had. Did Cap'n Thad
teach you some or did you pick it up yourself?' He never answered
for a minute or so, seemed to be way off dreamin' in the next
county somewheres. Then he looked at me with them big eyes of his
and he drawled out: 'Comes natural to me, Mr. Mullett, I guess,' he
says. 'There seems to be a sort of family feelin' between my head
and a chunk of wood.' Now what kind of an answer was that, I want
to know!"
Jed worked at carpentering for a number of years, sometimes going
as far away as Ostable to obtain employment. And then his mother
was seized with the illness from which, so she said, she never
recovered. It is true that Doctor Parker, the Orham physician,
declared that she had recovered, or might recover if she cared to.
Which of the pair was right does not really matter. At all events
Mrs. Winslow, whether she recovered or not, never walked abroad
again. She was "up and about," as they say in Orham, and did some
housework, after a fashion, but she never again set foot across the
granite doorstep of the Winslow cottage. Probably the poor woman's
mind was slightly affected; it is charitable to hope that it was.
It seems the only reasonable excuse for the oddity of her behavior
during the last twenty years of her life, for her growing
querulousness and selfishness and for the exacting slavery in which
she kept her only son.
During those twenty years whatever ambition Jedidah Edgar Wilfred
may once have had was thoroughly crushed. His mother would not
hear of his leaving her to find better work or to obtain promotion.
She needed him, she wailed; he was her life, her all; she should
die if he left her. Some hard-hearted townspeople, Captain
Hunniwell among them, disgustedly opined that, in view of such a
result, Jed should be forcibly kidnaped forthwith for the general
betterment of the community. But Jed himself never rebelled. He
cheerfully gave up his youth and early middle age to his mother and
waited upon her, ran her errands, sat beside her practically every
evening and read romance after romance aloud for her benefit. And
his "queerness" developed, as under such circumstances it was bound
to do.
Money had to be earned and, as the invalid would not permit him to
leave her to earn it, it was necessary to find ways of earning it
at home. Jed did odd jobs of carpentering and cabinet making, went
fishing sometimes, worked in gardens between times, did almost
anything, in fact, to bring in the needed dollars. And when he was
thirty-eight years old he made and sold his first "Cape Cod Winslow
windmill," the forerunner of the thousands to follow. That mill,
made in some of his rare idle moments and given to the child of a
wealthy summer visitor, made a hit. The child liked it and other
children wanted mills just like it. Then "grown-ups" among the
summer folk took up the craze. "Winslow mills" became the fad.
Jed built his little shop, or the first installment of it.
Mrs. Floretta Winslow died when her son was forty. A merciful
release, Captain Sam and the rest called it, but to Jed it was a
stunning shock. He had no one to take care of now except himself
and he did not know what to do. He moped about like a deserted
cat. Finally he decided that he could not live in the old house
where he was born and had lived all his life. He expressed his
feelings concerning that house to his nearest friend, practically
his sole confidant, Captain Sam.
"I can't somehow seem to stand it, Sam," he said, solemnly. "I
can't stay in that house alone any longer, it's--it's too
sociable."
The captain, who had expected almost anything but that, stared at
him.
"Sociable!" he repeated. "You're sailin' stern first, Jed.
Lonesome's what you mean, of course."
Jed shook his head.
"No-o," he drawled, "I mean sociable. There's too many boys in
there, for one thing."
"Boys!" Captain Sam was beginning to be really alarmed now.
"Boys! Say--say, Jed Winslow, you come along home to dinner with
me. I bet you've forgot to eat anything for the last day or so--
been inventin' some new kind of whirlagig or other--and your empty
stomach's gone to your head and made it dizzy. Boys! Gracious
king! Come on home with me."
Jed smiled his slow smile. "I don't mean real boys, Sam," he
explained. "I mean me--I'm the boys. Nights now when I'm walkin'
around in that house alone I meet myself comin' round every corner.
Me when I was five, comin' out of the buttery with a cooky in each
fist; and me when I was ten sittin' studyin' my lesson book in the
corner; and me when I was fifteen, just afore Father died, sittin'
all alone thinkin' what I'd do when I went to Boston Tech same as
he said he was cal'latin' to send me. Then--"
He paused and lapsed into one of his fits of musing. His friend
drew a breath of relief.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Well, I don't mind your meetin' yourself. I
thought first you'd gone off your head, blessed if I didn't.
You're a queer critter, Jed. Get those funny notions from readin'
so many books, I guess likely. Meetin' yourself! What an idea
that is! I suppose you mean that, bein' alone in that house where
you've lived since you was born, you naturally get to thinkin'
about what used to be."
Jed stared wistfully at the back of a chair.
"Um-hm," he murmured, "and what might have been--and--and ain't."
The captain nodded. Of all the people in Orham he, he prided
himself, was the only one who thoroughly understood Jed Winslow.
And sometimes he did partially understand him; this was one of the
times.
"Now--now--now," he said, hastily, "don't you get to frettin'
yourself about your not amountin' to anything and all that. You've
got a nice little trade of your own buildin' up here. What more do
you want? We can't all be--er--Know-it-alls like Shakespeare, or--
or rich as Standard Oil Companies, can we? Look here, what do you
waste your time goin' back twenty-five years and meetin' yourself
for? Why don't you look ahead ten or fifteen and try to meet
yourself then? You may be a millionaire, a--er--windmill trust or
somethin' of that kind, by that time. Eh? Ha, ha!"
Jed rubbed his chin.
"When I meet myself lookin' like a millionaire," he observed,
gravely, "I'll have to do the way you do at your bank, Sam--call in
somebody to identify me."
Captain Sam laughed. "Well, anyhow," he said, "don't talk any more
foolishness about not livin' in your own house. If I was you--"
Mr. Winslow interrupted. "Sam," he said, "the way to find out what
you would do if you was me is to make sure WHAT you'd do--and then
do t'other thing, or somethin' worse."
"Oh, Jed, be reasonable."
Jed looked over his spectacles. "Sam," he drawled, "if I was
reasonable I wouldn't be me."
And he lived no longer in the old house. Having made up his mind,
he built a small two-room addition to his workshop and lived in
that. Later he added a sleeping room--a sort of loft--and a little
covered porch on the side toward the sea. Here, in pleasant summer
twilights or on moonlight nights, he sat and smoked. He had a good
many callers and but few real friends. Most of the townspeople
liked him, but almost all considered him a joke, an oddity, a
specimen to be pointed out to those of the summer people who were
looking for "types." A few, like Mr. Gabriel Bearse, who
distinctly did NOT understand him and who found his solemn
suggestions and pointed repartee irritating at times, were inclined
to refer to him in these moments of irritation as "town crank."
But they did not really mean it when they said it. And some
others, like Leander Babbitt or Captain Hunniwell, came to ask his
advice on personal matters, although even they patronized him just
a little. He had various nicknames, "Shavings" being the most
popular.
His peculiar business, the making of wooden mills, toys and weather
vanes, had grown steadily. Now he shipped many boxes of these to
other seashore and mountain resorts. He might have doubled his
output had he chosen to employ help or to enlarge his plant, but he
would not do so. He had rented the old Winslow house furnished
once to a summer tenant, but he never did so again, although he had
many opportunities. He lived alone in the addition to the little
workshop, cooking his own meals, making his own bed, and sewing on
his own buttons.
And on the day following that upon which Leander Babbitt enrolled
to fight for Uncle Sam, Jedidah Edgar Wilfred Winslow was forty-
five years old.
He was conscious of that fact when he arose. It was a pleasant
morning, the sun was rising over the notched horizon of the
tumbling ocean, the breeze was blowing, the surf on the bar was
frothing and roaring cheerily--and it was his birthday. The
morning, the sunrise, the surf and all the rest were pleasant to
contemplate--his age was not. So he decided not to contemplate it.
Instead he went out and hoisted at the top of the short pole on the
edge of the bluff the flag he had set there on the day when the
United States declared war against the Hun. He hoisted it every
fine morning and he took it in every night.
He stood for a moment, watching the red, white and blue flapping
bravely in the morning sunshine, then he went back into his little
kitchen at the rear of the workshop and set about cooking his
breakfast. The kitchen was about as big as a good-sized packing
box and Jed, standing over the oilstove, could reach any shelf in
sight without moving. He cooked his oatmeal porridge, boiled his
egg and then sat down at the table in the next room--his combined
living and dining-room and not very much bigger than the kitchen--
to eat. When he had finished, he washed the dishes, walked up to
the post office for the mail and then, entering the workshop, took
up the paint brush and the top sailor-man of the pile beside him
and began work. This, except on Sundays, was his usual morning
routine. It varied little, except that he occasionally sawed or
whittled instead of painted, or, less occasionally still, boxed
some of his wares for shipment.
During the forenoon he had some visitors. A group of summer people
from the hotel came in and, after pawing over and displacing about
half of the movable stock, bought ten or fifteen dollars' worth and
departed. Mr. Winslow had the satisfaction of hearing them burst
into a shout of laughter as they emerged into the yard and the
shrill voice of one of the females in the party rose above the
hilarity with: "Isn't he the WEIRDEST thing!" And an accompanying
male voice appraised him as "Some guy, believe me! S-o-o-me guy!"
Jed winced a little, but he went on with his painting. On one's
forty-fifth birthday one has acquired or should have acquired a
certain measure of philosophical resignation.
Other customers or lookers came and went. Maud Hunniwell, Captain
Sam's daughter, dropped in on her way to the post office. The
captain was a widower and Maud was his only child. She was,
therefore, more than the apple of his eye, she was a whole orchard
of apples. She was eighteen, pretty and vivacious, and her father
made a thorough job of spoiling her. Not that the spoiling had
injured her to any great extent, it had not as yet, but that was
Captain Sam's good luck. Maud was wearing a new dress--she had a
new one every week or so--and she came into the windmill shop to
show it. Of course she would have denied that that was the reason
for her coming, but the statement stands, nevertheless. She and
Jed were great chums and had been since she could walk. She liked
him, took his part when she heard him criticized or made fun of,
and was always prettily confidential and friendly when they were
alone together. Of course there was a touch of superiority and
patronage in her friendship. She should not be blamed for this;
all Orham, consciously or unconsciously, patronized Jed Winslow.
She came into the inner shop and sat down upon the same upturned
box upon which her father had sat the afternoon before. Her first
remark, after "good mornings" had been exchanged, was concerning
the "Private" sign on the inner side of the door.
"What in the world have you put that sign inside here for?" she
demanded.
Mr. Winslow explained, taking his own deliberate time in making the
explanation. Miss Hunniwell wrinkled her dainty upturned nose and
burst into a trill of laughter.
"Oh, that's lovely," she declared, "and just like you, besides.
And do you think Gabe Bearse will go back into the other room when
he sees it?"
Jed looked dreamily over his spectacles at the sign. "I don't
know," he drawled. "If I thought he'd go wherever that sign was I
ain't sure but I'd tack it on the cover of the well out in the yard
yonder."
His fair visitor laughed again. "Why, Jed," she exclaimed. "You
wouldn't want to drown him, would you?"
Jed seemed to reflect. "No-o," he answered, slowly, "don't know's
I would--not in my well, anyhow."
Miss Hunniwell declared that that was all nonsense. "You wouldn't
drown a kitten," she said. "I know that because when Mrs.
Nathaniel Rogers' old white cat brought all her kittens over here
the first of this summer you wouldn't even put them out in the yard
at night, to say nothing of drowning them. All six and the mother
cat stayed here and fairly swarmed over you and ate you out of
house and home. Father said he believed they fed at the first
table and you were taking what was left. It was a mercy the old
cat decided to lead them back to the Rogers' again or I don't know
WHAT might have become of you by this time."
Jed seemed to be thinking; there was a reminiscent twinkle in his
eye.
"The old cat didn't lead 'em back," he said. "Nathaniel took 'em
back. Didn't I ever tell you about that?"
"No, you didn't. You KNOW you didn't. Mr. Rogers took them back?
I can't believe it. He told everywhere about town that he was glad
to get rid of the whole family and, as you and the cats seemed to
be mutually happy together, he wasn't going to disturb you. He
thought it was a great joke on you. And he took them back himself?
Why?"
Mr. Winslow rubbed his chin. "I don't know's I'd ought to say
anything about it," he said. "I haven't afore. I wouldn't
interfere with Nate's sales for anything."
"Sales? Sales of what? Oh, you mean thing! Don't be so
provoking! Tell me the whole story this minute."
Jed painted a moment or two. Then he said: "We-ell, Maud, you see
those kittens got to be kind of a nuisance. They was cunnin' and
cute and all that, but they was so everlastin' lively and hungry
that they didn't give me much of a chance. I was only one, you
see, and they had a majority vote every time on who should have the
bed and the chairs and the table and one thing or 'nother. If I
sat down I sat on a cat. If I went to bed I laid down on cats, and
when I turned them out and turned in myself they came and laid down
on ME. I slept under fur blankets most of June. And as for
eatin'-- Well, every time I cooked meat or fish they sat down in a
circle and whooped for some. When I took it off the fire and put
it in a plate on the table, I had to put another plate and a--a
plane or somethin' heavy on top of it or they'd have had it sartin
sure. Then when I sat down to eat it they formed a circle again
like a reg'lar band and tuned up and hollered. Lord a-mercy, HOW
they did holler! And if one of the kittens stopped, run out of
wind or got a sore throat or anything, the old cat would bite it to
set it goin' again. She wan't goin' to have any shirkin' in HER
orchestra. I ate to music, as you might say, same as I've read
they do up to Boston restaurants. And about everything I did eat
was stuffed with cats' hairs. Seemed sometimes as if those kittens
was solid fur all the way through; they never could have shed all
that hair from the outside. Somebody told me that kittens never
shed hair, 'twas only full grown cats did that. I don't believe
it. Nate Rogers' old maltee never shed all that alone; allowin'
her a half barrel, there was all of another barrel spread around
the premises. No-o, those cats was a good deal of a nuisance.
Um-hm. . . . Yes, they was. . . ."
He paused and, apparently having forgotten that he was in the
middle of a story, began to whistle lugubriously and to bend all
his other energies to painting. Miss Hunniwell, who had laughed
until her eyes were misty, wiped them with her handkerchief and
commanded him to go on.
"Tell me the rest of it," she insisted. "How did you get rid of
them? How did Mr. Rogers come to take them back?"
"Eh? . . . Oh, why, you see, I went over to Nate's three or four
times and told him his cat and kittens were here and I didn't feel
right to deprive him of 'em any longer. He said never mind, I
could keep 'em long as I wanted to. I said that was about as long
as I had kept 'em. Then he said he didn't know's he cared about
ever havin' 'em again; said he and his wife had kind of lost their
taste for cats, seemed so. I--well, I hinted that, long as the
tribe was at my house I wan't likely to have a chance to taste much
of anything, but it didn't seem to have much effect. Then--"
"Yes, yes; go on! go on!"
"Oh. . . . Then one day Nate he happened to be in here--come to
borrow somethin', some tool seems to me 'twas--and the cats was
climbin' round promiscuous same as usual. And one of the summer
women came in while he was here, wanted a mill for her little niece
or somethin'. And she saw one of the animals and she dropped
everything else and sang out: 'Oh, what a beautiful kitten! What
unusual coloring! May I see it?' Course she was seein' it
already, but I judged she meant could she handle it, so I tried to
haul the critter loose from my leg--there was generally one or more
of 'em shinnin' over me somewhere. It squalled when I took hold of
it and she says: 'Oh, it doesn't want to come, does it! It must
have a very affectionate disposition to be so attached to you.'
Seemed to me 'twas attached by its claws more'n its disposition,
but I pried it loose and handed it to her. Then she says again,
'What unusual colorin'! Will you sell this one to me? I'll give
you five dollars for it.'"
He stopped again. Another reminder from Miss Hunniwell was
necessary to make him continue.
"And you sold one of those kittens for five dollars?" she cried.
"No-o."
"You didn't? Why, you foolish man! Why not?"
"I never had a chance. Afore I could say a word Nate Rogers spoke
up and said the kittens belonged to him. Then she saw another one
that she hadn't seen afore and she says: 'Oh, that one has more
unusual colorin's even than this. I never saw such color in a
cat.' Course she meant ON a cat but we understood what she meant.
'Are they a very rare breed?' she asked. Nate said they was and--"
Miss Hunniwell interrupted. "But they weren't, were they?" she
cried. "I never knew they were anything more than plain tabby."
Jed shook his head. "Nate said they was," he went on solemnly.
"He said they were awful rare. Then she wanted to know would he
sell one for five dollars. He said no, he couldn't think of it."
"Why, the greedy old thing!"
"And so he and she had it back and forth and finally they struck a
bargain at seven dollars for the one that looked most like a crazy
quilt."
"Seven dollars for a CAT? What color was it, for goodness' sake?"
"Oh, all kinds, seemed so. Black and white and maltee and blue and
red and green--"
"Green! What ARE you talking about? Who ever saw a green cat?"
"This woman saw one that was part green and she bought it. Then
she said she'd take it right along in her car. Said she had a
friend that was as loony about cats as she was and she was goin' to
fetch her right down the very next day. And a couple of hours
after she'd gone Nate and his boy came back with a clothes basket
with a board over the top and loaded in the balance of the family
and went off with 'em. I ain't seen a hair of 'em since--no, I
won't say that quite, but I ain't seen THEM."
"And didn't he give you any of the seven dollars?"
"No-o."
"But you had been feeding those kittens and their mother for weeks."
"Ye-es."
"But didn't you ASK for anything?"
"We-ll, I told Nate he might maybe leave one of the kittens, so's I
could have a--er--souvenir of the visit, but he wouldn't do it.
Said those kittens was rare and--er--precious, or words to that
effect. He didn't intend to let another go as cheap as he had that
one."
"Oh. . . . I see. I remember now; I heard some one saying
something, early in July, about the sign on the Rogers' front
fence. 'Rare Cats for Sale' they said it was. I think. Of
course, I never thought of THOSE kittens. He must have sold them
all, for the sign isn't there now."
Jed whistled a few bars. "I don't hardly think he's sold 'em," he
said. "I presume likely he's just gone out of the business."
"I don't see why he shouldn't sell them. Green cats ought to sell
quickly enough, I should think. Were they green, honest and truly,
Jed?"
Mr. Winslow nodded.
"They were that mornin'," he drawled, solemnly.
"That morning? What do you mean?"
"We-ll, you see, Maud, those kittens were into everything and over
everything most of the time. Four of 'em had got in here early
afore I came downstairs that day and had been playin' hide and hoot
amongst my paint pots. They was green in spots, sure enough, but I
had my doubts as to its bein' fast color."
Maud laughed joyfully over the secret of the green pussies.
"I wish I might have seen that woman's face after the colors began
to wear off her 'rare' kitten," she said.
Jed smiled slightly. "Nathan saw it," he said. "I understood he
had to take back the kitten and give up the seven dollars. He
don't hardly speak to me nowadays. Seems to think 'twas my fault.
I don't hardly think 'twas, do you?"
Miss Hunniwell's call lasted almost an hour. Besides a general
chat concerning Leander Babbit's voluntary enlistment, the subject
which all Orham had discussed since the previous afternoon, she had
a fresh bit of news. The government had leased a large section of
land along the bay at East Harniss, the next village to Orham and
seven or eight miles distant, and there was to be a military
aviation camp there.
"Oh, it's true!" she declared, emphatically. "Father has known
that the Army people have been thinking of it for some time, but it
was really decided and the leases signed only last Saturday. They
will begin building the barracks and the buildings--the--oh, what
do they call those big sheds they keep the aeroplanes in?"
"The hangars," said Winslow, promptly.
"Yes, that's it. They will begin building those right away." She
paused and looked at him curiously. "How did you know they called
them hangars, Jed?" she asked.
"Eh? . . . Oh, I've read about 'em in the newspapers, that's
all. . . . H-u-u-m. . . . So we'll have aeroplanes flyin' around
here pretty soon, I suppose. Well, well!"
"Yes. And there'll be lots and lots of the flying men--the what-
do-you-call-'ems--aviators, and officers in uniform--and all sorts.
What fun! I'm just crazy about uniforms!"
Her eyes snapped. Jed, in his quiet way, seemed excited, too. He
was gazing absently out of the window as if he saw, in fancy, a
procession of aircraft flying over Orham flats.
"They'll be flyin' up out there," he said, musingly. "And I'll see
'em--I will. Sho!"
Miss Hunniwell regarded him mischievously. "Jed," she asked,
"would you like to be an aviator?"
Jed's answer was solemnly given. "I'm afraid I shouldn't be much
good at the job," he drawled.
His visitor burst into another laugh. He looked at her over his
glasses.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing; I--I was just thinking of you in a uniform, that's
all."
Jed smiled his slow, fleeting smile.
"I guess likely I would be pretty funny," he admitted. "Any
Germans I met would probably die laughin' and that might help along
some."
But after Miss Hunniwell had gone he sat for some minutes gazing
out of the window, the wistful, dreamy look on his lean, homely
face. Then he sighed, and resumed his painting.
That afternoon, about half past five, he was still at his task
when, hearing the doorbell ring, he rose and went into the front
shop. To his astonishment the shop was empty. He looked about for
the expected customer or caller, whoever he or she might be, and
saw no one. He stepped to the window and looked out, but there was
no one on the steps or in the yard. He made up his mind that he
must have dreamed of the bell-ringing and was turning back to the
inner room, when a voice said:
"Please, are you the windmill man?"
Jed started, turned again, and stared about him.
"Please, sir, here I am," said the voice.
Jed, looking down, instead of up or on a level, saw his visitor
then. That is, he saw a tumbled shock of curls and a pair of big
round eyes looking up at him over a stock of weather vanes.
"Hello!" he exclaimed, in surprise.
The curls and eyes came out from behind the stack of vanes. They
were parts of a little girl, and the little girl made him a demure
little courtesy.
"How do you do?" she said.
Jed regarded her in silence for a moment. Then, "Why, I'm fair to
middlin' smart just at present," he drawled. "How do YOU find
yourself to-day?"
The young lady's answer was prompt and to the point. "I'm nicely,
thank you," she replied, and added: "I was sick at my stomach
yesterday, though."
This bit of personal information being quite unexpected, Mr.
Winslow scarcely knew what comment to make in reply to it.
"Sho!" he exclaimed. "Was you, though?"
"Yes. Mamma says she is 'clined to think it was the two whole
bananas and the choc'late creams, but I think it was the fried
potatoes. I was sick twice--no, three times. Please, I asked you
something. Are you the windmill man?"
Jed, by this time very much amused, looked her over once more. She
was a pretty little thing, although just at this time it is
doubtful if any of her family or those closely associated with her
would have admitted it. Her face was not too clean, her frock was
soiled and mussed, her curls had been blown into a tangle and there
were smooches, Jed guessed them to be blackberry stains, on her
hands, around her mouth and even across her small nose. She had a
doll, its raiment in about the same condition as her own, tucked
under one arm. Hat she had none.
Mr. Winslow inspected her in his accustomed deliberate fashion.
"Guess you've been havin' a pretty good time, haven't you?" he
inquired.
The small visitor's answer was given with dignity.
"Yes," she said. "Will you please tell me if you are the windmill
man?"
Jed accepted the snub with outward humility and inward appreciation.
"Why, yes," he admitted; "I presume likely I'm the windmill man.
Is there anything I can do for you this evenin'?"
Apparently there was, for the child, untucking the doll from
beneath her right arm and tucking it under the left, pointed her
right hand at a wooden weather-vane in the shape of a sperm whale
and asked:
"Please, does that fish go 'round?"
"Go 'round? Go 'round where?"
"I mean does it go 'round and 'round on a stick?"
"Cal'late it does when it has a chance."
"And does it make the wind blow no'theast by no'th and--and like
that?"
"Eh? Make the wind blow--how?"
"I mean does it make the wind blow different ways, no'theast by
no'th and cantin' 'round to the sou-east and--and those ways?
Captain Hedge has got a fish up on his barn that used to do that,
but now it won't 'cause he cal'lates it's rusted fast. He said he
guessed he would have to be getting a new one. When I saw the
fishes out in your yard I thought about it and I thought I would
come in and see if you had the right kind. Is this one a--a
gunfish?"
"A WHICH fish?"
"A gunfish. No, that isn't it. A--a swordfish, that's it.
Captain Hedge's is a swordfish."
"We-ll, that particular one got a wrong start and ended up by bein'
a whale, but I shouldn't wonder if we could find a swordfish if we
looked. Yes, here's one. Think that would do?"
The child looked it over very carefully.
"Yes," she said, "I think it would. If you're sure it would make
the wind go right."
"We-ll, I guess likely I could guarantee that fish would go 'most
any way the wind did, unless it should take a notion to blow
straight up and down, which don't happen often. So you know Cap'n
Hedge, do you? Relation of his, are you? Visitin' there?"
"No. Mamma and I are boarding at Mrs. Smalley's, but I go over to
call on Captain Hedge 'most every day."
"Sho! Want to know! Well, that's nice and sociable. So you're
boardin' at Luretta Smalley's. My! you're consider'ble ways from
home, ain't you? Is your mamma with you?"
For the first time the youthful caller's poise seemed a trifle
shaken.
"No-o . . . no," she stammered, and added, hastily: "How much is
this fish, please?"
"I generally sell that sort of fish for about two dollars." He
looked out of the window, hummed a tune, and then added: "Let's
see, what did you say your name was?"
"I didn't, but it's Barbara Armstrong. HOW much did you say the
fish was?"
"Eh? . . . Oh, two dollars."
Miss Armstrong looked very much disappointed.
"Oh, dear," she sighed. "I didn't know it would be as much as
that. I--I'm 'fraid I can't get it."
"So? That's too bad. What was you cal'latin' to do with it, if
you did get it?"
"I was going to give it to Captain Hedge. He misses his, now that
it's rusted so fast that it won't go. But I can't get it. I
haven't got but fourteen cents, ten that Mamma gave me this morning
for being a good girl and taking my medicine nice yesterday, and
four that Mrs. Smalley gave me for getting the eggs last week. And
two dollars is EVER so much more than fourteen cents, isn't it?"
"Hum. . . . 'Tis a little more, that's right. It's considered
more by the--um--er--best authorities. Hum . . . er . . . h-u-u-m.
Sometimes, though, I do take off a little somethin' for spot cash.
You'd pay spot cash, I presume likely, wouldn't you?"
"I--I don't know what spot cash is. I'd pay fourteen cents."
Jed rubbed his chin. "We-e-ll," he drawled, gravely, "I'm afraid I
couldn't hardly knock off all that that comes to. But," taking
another and much smaller vane from a shelf, "there's an article,
not quite so big, that I usually get fifty cents for. What do you
think of that?"
The child took the miniature swordfish and inspected it carefully.
"It's a baby one, isn't it," she observed. "Will it tell wind just
as good as the big one?"
"Tell wind? Hum! . . . Don't know's I ever heard it put just that
way afore. But a clock tells time, so I suppose there's no reason
why a vane shouldn't tell wind. Yes, I guess 'twill tell wind all
right."
"Then I think it might do." She seemed a little doubtful. "Only,"
she added, "fifty cents is lots more than fourteen, isn't it?"
Mr. Winslow admitted that it was. "But I tell you," he said, after
another period of reflection, "seein' as it's you I'll make a
proposal to you. Cap'n Eri Hedge is a pretty good friend of mine,
same as he is of yours. Suppose you and I go in partners. You put
in your fourteen cents and I'll put in the rest of the swordfish.
Then you can take it to Cap'n Eri and tell him that we're givin' it
to him together. You just consider that plan for a minute now,
will you?"
Miss Armstrong looked doubtful.
"I--I don't know as I know what you mean," she said. "What did you
want me to do?"
"Why, consider the plan. You know what 'consider' means, don't
you?"
"I know a Mother Goose with it in. That one about the piper and
the cow:
'He took up his pipes and he played her a tune,
Consider, old cow, consider.'
But I don't know as I SURELY know what he wanted the cow to do?
Does 'consider' mean see if you like it?"
"That's the idea. Think it over and see if you'd like to go halves
with me givin' the fish to Cap'n Hedge."
The curls moved vigorously up and down.
"I think I should," she decided.
"Good! Now you wait and I'll do it up."
He wrapped the toy vane in a piece of paper and handed it to his
small patron. She gravely produced a miniature velvet purse with
the remnants of some bead fringe hanging to its lower edge and laid
a dime and four pennies on the top of a packing case between them.
It was growing dark in the shop and Jed lighted one of the bracket
lamps. Returning, he found the coins laid in a row and Miss
Armstrong regarding them somewhat soberly.
"There isn't any MORE than fourteen, is there?" she asked. "I
mean--I mean fourteen cents takes all of it, doesn't it?"
Jed looked at her face. His eye twinkled.
"Well, suppose it didn't?" he asked. "What then?"
She hesitated. "Why," she stammered, "if--if there was ONE left
over I--maybe I could buy something tomorrow at the candy store.
Not to-day, 'cause I told Mamma I wouldn't to-day 'cause I was sick
at my stomach yesterday--but to-morrow I could."
Mr. Winslow carefully counted the coins and then, spreading them
out on his big palm, showed them to her.
"There!" he said. "Now you've given me the fourteen cents. I've
got 'em, haven't I?"
Miss Barbara solemnly nodded.
"Yes," continued Jed. "Now I'll put 'em back in your wallet again.
There they are, shut up in the wallet. Now you put the wallet in
your pocket. Now take your fish bundle under your arm. There! now
everything's settled. You've got the fish, haven't you? Sartin'.
Yes, and I've been paid for it, haven't I?"
The child stared at him.
"But--but--" she began.
"Now--now don't let's argue about it," pleaded Jed, plaintively.
"Argum always gives me the--er--epizootic or somethin'. You saw me
have the money right in my hand. It's all settled; think it over
and see if it ain't. You've got the fish and I've HAD the fourteen
cents. Now run right along home and don't get lost. Good-night."
He led her gently to the door and closed it behind her. Then,
smiling and shaking his head, he returned to the inner shop, where
he lit the lamps and sat down for another bit of painting before
supper. But that bit was destined not to be done that night. He
had scarcely picked up his brush before the doorbell rang once
more. Returning to the outer room, he found his recent visitor,
the swordfish under one arm and the doll under the other, standing
in the aisle between the stacked mills and vanes and looking, so it
seemed to him, considerably perturbed.
"Well, well!" he exclaimed. "Back again so soon? What's the
matter; forget somethin', did you?"
Miss Armstrong shook her head.
"No-o," she said. "But--but--"
"Yes? But what?"
"Don't you think--don't you think it is pretty dark for little
girls to be out?"
Jed looked at her, stepped to the door, opened it and looked out,
and then turned back again.
"Why," he admitted, "it is gettin' a little shadowy in the corners,
maybe. It will be darker in an hour or so. But you think it's too
dark for little girls already, eh?"
She nodded. "I don't think Mamma would like me to be out when it's
so awful dark," she said.
"Hum! . . . Hum. . . . Does your mamma know where you are?"
The young lady's toe marked a circle on the shop floor.
"No-o," she confessed, "I--I guess she doesn't, not just exactly."
"I shouldn't be surprised. And so you've come back because you was
afraid, eh?"
She swallowed hard and edged a little nearer to him.
"No-o," she declared, stoutly, "I--I wasn't afraid, not very; but--
but I thought the--the swordfish was pretty heavy to carry all
alone and--and so--"
Jed laughed aloud, something that he rarely did.
"Good for you, sis!" he exclaimed. "Now you just wait until I get
my hat and we'll carry that heavy fish home together."
Miss Armstrong looked decidedly happier.
"Thank you very much," she said. "And--and, if you please, my name
is Barbara."