IN WHICH JIM FENTON APPLIES FOR LODGINGS AT TOM BUFFUM'S BOARDING-HOUSE,
AND FINDS HIS OLD FRIEND.
As Jim walked up to the door of the building occupied by Tom Buffum's
family, he met the head of the family coming out; and as, hitherto, that
personage has escaped description, it will be well for the reader to
make his acquaintance. The first suggestion conveyed by his rotund
figure was, that however scantily he furnished his boarders, he never
stinted himself in the matter of food. He had the sluggish, clumsy look
of a heavy eater. His face was large, his almost colorless eyes were
small, and, if one might judge by the general expression of his
features, his favorite viand was pork. Indeed, if the swine into which
the devils once entered had left any descendants, it would be legitimate
to suppose that the breed still thrived in the most respectable sty
connected with his establishment. He was always hoarse, and spoke either
in a whisper or a wheeze. For this, or for some other reason not
apparent, he was a silent man, rarely speaking except when addressed by
a question, and never making conversation with anybody. From the time he
first started independently in the world, he had been in some public
office. Men with dirty work to do had found him wonderfully serviceable,
and, by ways which it would be hard to define to the ordinary mind, he
had so managed that every town and county office, in which there was any
money, had been by turns in his hands.
"Well, Mr. Buffum, how fare ye?" said Jim, walking heartily up to him,
and shaking his hand, his face glowing with good-nature.
Mr. Buffum's attempt to respond to this address ended in a wheeze and a
cough.
"Have ye got room for another boarder to-night? Faith, I never expected
to come to the poor-house, but here I am. I'll take entertainment for
man or beast. Which is the best, and which do you charge the most for?
Somebody's got to keep me to-night, and ye're the man to bid low."
Buffum made no reply, but stooped down, took a sliver from a log, and
began to pick his teeth. Jim watched him with quiet amusement. The more
Mr. Buffum thought, the more furious he grew with his toothpick.
"Pretty tough old beef, wasn't it?" said Jim, with a hearty laugh.
"You go in and see the women," said Mr. Buffum, in a wheezy whisper.
This, to Jim, was equivalent to an honorable reception. He had no doubt
of his ability to make his way with "the women" who, he was fully aware,
had been watching him all the time from the window.
To the women of Tom Buffum's household, a visitor was a godsend.
Socially, they had lived all their lives in a state of starvation. They
knew all about Jim Fenton, and had exchanged many a saucy word with him,
as he had passed their house on his journeys to and from Sevenoaks.
"If you can take up with what we've got," said Mrs. Buffum suggestively.
"In course," responded Jim, "an' I can take up with what ye haven't
got."
"Our accommodations is very crowded," said Mrs. Buffum.
"So is mine to home," responded Jim. "I allers sleep hangin' on a
gambrel, between two slabs."
While Mr. Tom Buffum's "women" were laughing, Jim lifted off his pack,
placed his rifle in the corner of the room, and sat down in front of the
fire, running on with his easygoing tongue through preposterous
stories, and sundry flattering allusions to the beauty and
attractiveness of the women to whose hospitalities he had committed
himself.
After supper, to which he did full justice, the family drew around the
evening fire, and while Mr. Buffum went, or seemed to go, to sleep, in
his chair, his guest did his best to entertain the minor members of the
group.
"This hollerin' ye have here reminds me," said Jim, "of Number Nine.
Ther's some pretty tall hollerin' thar nights. Do ye see how my ha'r
sticks up? I can't keep it down. It riz one night jest about where you
see it now, and it's mostly been thar ever sence. Combin' don't do no
good Taller don't do no good. Nothin' don't do no good. I s'pose if Mr.
Buffum, a-snorin' jest as hard as he does now, should set on it for a
fortnight, it would spring right up like a staddle, with a b'ar ketched
at the eend of it, jest as quick as he let up on me." At this there was
a slight rumble in Mr. Buffum's throat.
"Why, what made it rise so?" inquired the most interested and eldest
Miss Buffum.
"Now, ain't your purty eyes wide open?" said Jim.
"You're jest fooling; you know you are," responded Miss Buffum,
blushing.
"Do ye see the ha'r on the back of my hand?" said Jim, patting one of
those ample instruments with the other. "That stands up jest as it does
on my head. I'm a regular hedgehog. It all happened then."
"Now, Jim Fenton, you shall go along and tell your story, and not keep
us on tenter-hooks all night," said Miss Buffum sharply.
"I don't want to scare the dear little heart out o' ye," said Jim, with
a killing look of his eyes, "but if ye will hear it, I s'pose I must
tell ye. Ye see I'm alone purty much all the time up thar. I don't have
no such times as I'm havin' here to-night, with purty gals 'round me.
Well, one night I hearn a loon, or thought I hearn one. It sounded 'way
off on the lake, and bimeby it come nigher, and then I thought it was a
painter, but it didn't sound 'zactly like a painter. My dog Turk he
don't mind such things, but he knowed it wa'r'n't a loon and wa'r'n't a
painter. So he got up and went to the door, and then the yell come agin,
and he set up the most un'arthly howl I ever hearn. I flung one o' my
boots at 'im, but he didn't mind any thing more about it than if it had
been a feather. Well, ye see, I couldn't sleep, and the skeeters was
purty busy, and I thought I'd git up. So I went to my cabin door and
flung it open. The moon was shinin', and the woods was still, but Turk,
he rushed out, and growled and barked like mad. Bimeby he got tired, and
come back lookin' kind o' skeered, and says I: 'Ye're a purty dog, ain't
ye?' Jest then I hearn the thing nigher, and I begun to hear the brush
crack. I knowed I'd got to meet some new sort of a creetur, and I jest
stepped back and took my rifle. When I stood in the door agin, I seen
somethin' comin'. It was a walkin' on two legs like a man, and it was a
man, or somethin' that looked like one. He come toward the cabin, and
stopped about three rod off. He had long white hair that looked jest
like silk under the moon, and his robes was white, and he had somethin'
in his hand that shined like silver. I jest drew up my rifle, and says
I: 'Whosomever you be, stop, or I'll plug ye.' What do ye s'pose he did?
He jest took that shinin' thing and swung it round and round his head,
and I begun to feel the ha'r start, and up it come all over me. Then he
put suthin' to his mouth, and then I knowed it was a trumpet, and he
jest blowed till all the woods rung, and rung, and rung agin, and I
hearn it comin' back from the mountain, louder nor it was itself. And
then says I to myself: 'There's another one, and Jim Fenton's a goner;'
but I didn't let on that I was skeered, and says I to him: 'That's a
good deal of a toot; who be ye callin' to dinner?' And says he: 'It's
the last day! Come to jedgment! I'm the Angel Gabr'el!' 'Well,' says I,
'if ye're the Angel Gabr'el, cold lead won't hurt ye, so mind yer eyes!'
At that I drew a bead on 'im, and if ye'll b'lieve it, I knocked a tin
horn out of his hands and picked it up the next mornin', and he went off
into the woods like a streak o' lightnin'. But my ha'r hain't never come
down."
Jim stroked the refractory locks toward his forehead with his huge hand,
and they rose behind it like a wheat-field behind a summer wind. As he
finished the manipulation, Mr. Buffum gave symptoms of life. Like a
volcano under premonitory signs of an eruption, a wheezy chuckle seemed
to begin somewhere in the region of his boots, and rise, growing more
and more audible, until it burst into a full demonstration, that was
half laugh and half cough.
"Why, what are you laughing at, father?" exclaimed Miss Buffum.
The truth was that Mr. Buffum had not slept at all. The simulation of
sleep had been indulged in simply to escape the necessity of talking.
"It was old Tilden," said Mr. Buffum, and then went off into another fit
of coughing and laughing that nearly strangled him.
"I wonder if it was!" seemed to come simultaneously from the lips of the
mother and her daughters.
"Did you ever see him again?" inquired Mr. Buffum.
"I seen 'im oncet, in the spring, I s'pose," said Jim, "what there was
left of 'im. There wasn't much left but an old shirt and some bones, an'
I guess he wa'n't no great shakes of an angel. I buried 'im where I
found 'im, and said nothin' to nobody."
"That's right," wheezed Mr. Buffum. "It's just as well."
"The truth is," said Mrs. Buffum, "that folks made a great fuss about
his gettin' away from here and never bein' found. I thought 'twas a good
riddance myself, but people seem to think that these crazy critturs are
just as much consequence as any body, when they don't know a thing. He
was always arter our dinner horn, and blowin', and thinkin' he was the
Angel Gabriel. Well, it's a comfort to know he's buried, and isn't no
more expense."
"I sh'd like to see some of these crazy people," said Jim. "They must be
a jolly set. My ha'r can't stand any straighter nor it does now, and
when you feed the animals in the mornin', I'd kind o' like to go round
with ye."
The women insisted that he ought not to do it. Only those who understood
them, and were used to them, ought to see them.
"You see, we can't give 'em much furnitur'," said Mrs. Buffum. "They
break it, and they tear their beds to pieces, and all we can do is to
jest keep them alive. As for keepin' their bodies and souls together, I
don't s'pose they've got any souls. They are nothin' but animils, as you
say, and I don't see why any body should treat an animil like a human
bein.' They hav'n't no sense of what you do for 'em."
"Oh, ye needn't be afraid o' my blowin'. I never blowed about old
Tilden, as you call 'im, an' I never expect to," said Jim.
"That's right," wheezed Mr. Buffum. "It's just as well."
"Well, I s'pose the Doctor'll be up in the mornin'," said Mrs. Buffum,
"and we shall clean up a little, and put in new straw, and p'r'aps you
can go round with him?"
Mr. Buffum nodded his assent, and after an evening spent in
story-telling and chaffing, Jim went to bed upon the shakedown in an
upper room to which he was conducted.
Long before he was on his feet in the morning, the paupers of the
establishment had been fed, and things had been put in order for the
medical inspector. Soon after breakfast, the Doctor's crazy little gig
was seen ascending the hill, and Mr. Buffum and Jim were at the door
when he drove up. Buffum took the Doctor aside, and told him of Jim's
desire to make the rounds with him. Nothing could have delighted the
little man more than a proposition of this kind, because it gave him an
opportunity to talk. Jim had measured his man when he heard him speak
the previous day, and as they crossed the road together, he said:
"Doctor, they didn't treat ye very well down there yesterday. I said to
myself; 'Jim Fenton, what would ye done if ye had knowed as much as that
doctor, an' had worked as hard as he had, and then be'n jest as good as
stomped on by a set o' fellows that didn't know a hole in the ground
when they seen it?' and, says I, answerin' myself, 'ye'd 'a' made the
fur fly, and spilt blood.'"
"Ah," responded the Doctor, "Violence resteth in the bosom of fools."
"Well, it wouldn't 'a' rested in my bosom long. I'd 'a' made a young
'arthquake there in two minutes."
The Doctor smiled, and said with a sigh:
"The vulgar mind does not comprehend science."
"Now, jest tell me what science is," said Jim. "I hearn a great deal
about science, but I live up in the woods, and I can't read very much,
and ye see I ain't edicated, and I made up my mind if I ever found a man
as knowed what science was, I'd ask him."
"Science, sir, is the sum of organized and systematized knowledge,"
replied the Doctor.
"Now, that seems reasomble," said Jim, "but what is it like? What do
they do with it? Can a feller get a livin' by it?"
"Not in Sevenoaks," replied the Doctor, with a bitter smile.
"Then, what's the use of it?"
"Pardon me, Mr. Fenton," replied the Doctor. "You'll excuse me, when I
veil you that you have not arrived at that mental altitude--that
intellectual plane--"
"No," said Jim, "I live on a sort of a medder."
The case being hopeless, the Doctor went on and opened the door into
what he was pleased to call "the insane ward." As Jim put his head into
the door, he uttered a "phew!" and then said:
"This is worser nor the town meetin'."
The moment Jim's eyes beheld the misery that groaned out its days and
nights within the stingy cells, his great heart melted with pity. For
the first moments, his disposition to jest passed away, and all his soul
rose up in indignation. If profane words came to his lips, they came
from genuine commiseration, and a sense of the outrage that had been
committed upon those who had been stamped with the image of the
Almighty.
"This is a case of Shakspearean madness," said Dr. Radcliffe, pausing
before the barred and grated cell that held a half-nude woman. It was a
little box of a place, with a rude bedstead in one corner, filthy beyond
the power of water to cleanse. The occupant sat on a little bench in
another corner, with her eyes rolled up to Jim's in a tragic expression,
which would make the fortune of an actress. He felt of his hair,
impulsively.
"How are ye now? How do ye feel?" inquired Jim, tenderly.
She gave him no answer, but glared at him as if she would search the
very depths of his heart.
"If ye'll look t'other way, ye'll obleege me," said Jim.
But the woman gazed on, speechless, as if all the soul that had left her
brain had taken up its residence in her large, black eyes.
"Is she tryin' to look me out o' countenance, Doctor?" Inquired Jim,
"'cause, if she is, I'll stand here and let 'er try it on; but if she
ain't I'll take the next one."
"Oh, she doesn't know what she's about, but it's a very curious form of
insanity, and has almost a romantic interest attached to it from the
fact that it did not escape the notice of the great bard."
"I notice, myself," said Jim, "that she's grated and barred."
The Doctor looked at his visitor inquisitively, but the woodman's face
was as innocent as that of a child. Then they passed on to the next
cell, and there they found another Woman sitting quietly in the corner,
among the straw.
"How fare ye, this mornin'?" inquired Jim, with a voice full of
kindness.
"I'm just on the verge of eternity," replied the woman.
"Don't ye be so sure o' that, now," responded Jim. "Ye're good for ten
year yit."
"No," said the woman, "I shall die in a minute."
"Does she mean that?" inquired Jim, turning to the Doctor.
"Yes, and she has been just on the verge of eternity for fifteen years,"
replied the Doctor, coolly. "That's rather an interesting case, too.
I've given it a good deal of study. It's hopeless, of course, but it's a
marked case, and full of suggestion to a scientific man."
"Isn't it a pity," responded Jim, "that she isn't a scientific man
herself? It might amuse her, you know."
The Doctor laughed, and led him on to the next cell, and here he found
the most wretched creature he had ever seen. He greeted her as he had
greeted the others, and she looked up to him with surprise, raised
herself from the straw, and said:
"You speak like a Christian."
The tears came into Jim's eyes, for he saw in that little sentence, the
cruelty of the treatment she had received.
"Well, I ain't no Christian, as I knows on," he responded, "an' I don't
think they're very plenty in these parts; but I'm right sorry for ye.
You look as if you might be a good sort of a woman."
"I should have been if it hadn't been for the pigeons," said the woman.
"They flew over a whole day, in flocks, and flocks, and cursed the
world. All the people have got the plague, and they don't know it. My
children all died of it, and went to hell. Everybody is going to hell,
and nothing can save them. Old Buffum'll go first. Robert Belcher'll go
next. Dr. Radcliffe will go next."
"Look here, old woman, ye jest leave me out of that calkerlation," said
Jim.
"Will you have the kindness to kill me, sir?" said the woman.
"I really can't, this mornin'," he replied, "for I've got a good ways
to tramp to-day; but if I ever want to kill anybody I'll come round,
p'r'aps, and 'commodate ye."
"Thank you," she responded heartily.
The Doctor turned to Jim, and said:
"Do you see that hole in the wall, beyond her head? Well, that hole was
made by Mr. Buffum. She had begged him to kill her so often that he
thought he would put her to the test, and he agreed he would do so. So
he set her up by that wall, and took a heavy stick from the wood-pile,
raised it as high as the room would permit, and then brought it down
with great violence, burying the end of the bludgeon in the plastering.
I suppose he came within three inches of her head, and she never winked.
It was a very interesting experiment, as it illustrated the genuineness
of her desire for death Otherwise the case is much like many others."
"Very interestin'," responded Jim, "very! Didn't you never think of
makin' her so easy and comfortable that she wouldn't want any body to
kill her? I sh'd think that would be an interestin' experiment."
Now the Doctor had one resort, which, among the people of Sevenoaks, was
infallible, whenever he wished to check argumentation on any subject
relating to his profession. Any man who undertook to argue a medical
question with him, or make a suggestion relating to medical treatment,
he was in the habit of flooring at once, by wisely and almost pityingly
shaking his head, and saying: "It's very evident to me, sir, that you've
not received a medical education." So, when Jim suggested, in his
peculiar way, that the woman ought to be treated better, the Doctor saw
the point, and made his usual response.
"Mr. Fenton," said he, "excuse me, sir, but it's very evident that
you've not had a medical education."
"There's where you're weak," Jim responded. "I'm a reg'lar M.D., three
C's, double X, two I's. That's the year I was born, and that's my
perfession. I studied with an Injun, and I know more 'arbs, and roots,
and drawin' leaves than any doctor in a hundred mile; and if I can be of
any use to ye, Doctor, there's my hand."
And Jim seized the Doctor's hand, and gave it a pressure which raised
the little man off the floor.
The Doctor looked at him with eyes equally charged with amusement and
amazement. He never had been met in that way before, and was not
inclined to leave the field without in some way convincing Jim of his
own superiority.
"Mr. Fenton," said he, "did you ever see a medulla oblongata?"
"Well, I seen a good many garters," replied the woodsman, 'in the
stores, an' I guess they was mostly oblong."
"Did you ever see a solar plexus?" inquired the Doctor, severely.
"Dozens of 'em. I allers pick a few in the fall, but I don't make much
use of 'em."
"Perhaps you've seen a pineal gland," suggested the disgusted Doctor.
"I make 'em," responded Jim. "I whittle 'em out evenin's, ye know."
"If you were in one of these cells," said the Doctor, "I should think
you were as mad as a March hare."
At this moment the Doctor's attention was called to a few harmless
patients who thronged toward him as soon as they learned that he was in
the building, begging for medicine; for if there is anything that a
pauper takes supreme delight in it is drugs. Passing along with them to
a little lobby, where he could inspect them more conveniently, he left
Jim behind, as that personage did not prove to be so interesting and
impressible as he had hoped. Jim watched him as he moved away, with a
quiet chuckle, and then turned to pursue his investigations. The next
cell he encountered held the man he was looking for. Sitting in the
straw, talking to himself or some imaginary companion, he saw his old
friend. It took him a full minute to realize that the gentle sportsman,
the true Christian, the delicate man, the delightful companion, was
there before him, a wreck--cast out from among his fellows, confined in
a noisome cell, and hopelessly given over to his vagrant fancies and the
tender mercies of Thomas Buffum. When the memory of what Paul Benedict
had been to him, at one period of his life, came to Jim, with the full
realization of his present misery and degradation, the strong man wept
like a child. He drew an old silk handkerchief from his pocket, blew his
nose as if it had been a trumpet, and then slipped up to the cell and
said, softly: "Paul Benedict, give us your benediction."
"Jim!" said the man, looking up quickly.
"Good God! he knows me," said Jim, whimpering. "Yes, Mr. Benedict, I'm
the same rough old fellow. How fare ye?"
"I'm miserable," replied the man.
"Well, ye don't look as ef ye felt fust-rate. How did ye git in here?"
"Oh, I was damned when I died. It's all right, I know; but it's
terrible."
"Why, ye don't think ye're in hell, do ye?" inquired Jim.
"Don't you see?" inquired the wretch, looking around him.
"Oh, yes; I see! I guess you're right," said Jim, falling in with his
fancy.
"But where did you come from, Jim? I never heard that you were dead."
"Yes; I'm jest as dead as you be."
"Well, what did you come here for?"
"Oh, I thought I'd call round," replied Jim carelessly.
"Did you come from Abraham's bosom?" inquired Mr. Benedict eagerly.
"Straight."
"I can't think why you should come to see me, into such a place as
this!" said Benedict, wonderingly.
"Oh, I got kind o' oneasy. Don't have much to do over there, ye know."
"How did you get across the gulf?"
"I jest shoved over in a birch, an' ye must be perlite enough to return
the call," replied Jim, in the most matter-of-course manner possible.
Benedict looked down upon his torn and wretched clothing, and then
turned his pitiful eyes up to Jim, who saw the thoughts that were
passing in the poor man's mind.
"Never mind your clo'es," he said. "I dress jest the same there as I did
in Number Nine, and nobody says a word. The fact is, they don't mind
very much about clo'es there, any way. I'll come over and git ye, ye
know, an' interjuce ye, and ye shall have jest as good a time as Jim
Fenton can give ye."
"Shall I take my rifle along?" inquired Benedict.
"Yes, an' plenty of amanition. There ain't no game to speak on--only a
few pa'tridge; but we can shoot at a mark all day, ef we want to."
Benedict tottered to his feet and came to the grated door, with his eyes
all alight with hope and expectation. "Jim, you always were a good
fellow," said he, dropping his voice to a whisper, "I'll show you my
improvements. Belcher mustn't get hold of them. He's after them. I hear
him round nights, but he shan't have them. I've got a new tumbler,
and--"
"Well, never mind now," replied Jim. "It'll be jest as well when ye come
over to spend the day with me. Now ye look a here! Don't you say nothin'
about this to nobody. They'll all want to go, and we can't have 'em. You
an' I want to git red of the crowd, ye know. We allers did. So when I
come arter ye, jest keep mum, and we'll have a high old time."
All the intellect that Benedict could exercise was summoned to
comprehend this injunction. He nodded his head; he laid it up in his
memory. Hope had touched him, and he had won at least a degree of
momentary strength and steadiness from her gracious finger.
"Now jest lay down an' rest, an' keep your thoughts to yerself till I
come agin. Don't tell nobody I've be'n here, and don't ask leave of
nobody. I'll settle with the old boss if he makes any sort of a row; and
ye know when Jim Fenton says he'll stand between ye and all harm he
means it, an' nothin' else."
"Yes, Jim."
"An' when I come here--most likely in the night--I'll bring a robe to
put on ye, and we'll go out still."
"Yes, Jim."
"Sure you understand?"
"Yes, Jim."
"Well, good-bye. Give us your hand. Here's hopin'."
Benedict held himself up by the slats of the door, while Jim went along
to rejoin the Doctor. Outside of this door was still a solid one, which
had been thrown wide open in the morning for the purpose of admitting
the air. In this door Jim discovered a key, which he quietly placed in
his pocket, and which he judged, by its size, was fitted to the lock of
the inner as well as the outer door. He had already discovered that the
door by which he entered the building was bolted upon the outside, the
keeper doubtless supposing that no one would wish to enter so foul a
place, and trusting thus to keep the inmates in durance.
"Well, Doctor," said Jim, "this sort o' thing is too many for me. I
gi'en it up. It's very interestin', I s'pose, but my head begins to
spin, an' it seems to me it's gettin' out of order. Do ye see my har,
Doctor?" said he, exposing the heavy shock that crowned his head.
"Yes, I see it," replied the Doctor tartly. He thought he had shaken off
his unpleasant visitor, and his return disturbed him.
"Well, Doctor, that has all riz sence I come in here."
"Are you sure?" inquired the Doctor, mollified in the presence of a fact
that might prove to be of scientific interest.
"I'd jest combed it when you come this mornin'. D'ye ever see anythin'
like that? How am I goin' to git it down?"
"Very singular," said the Doctor.
"Yes, an' look here! D'ye see the har on the back o' my hand? That
stands up jest the same. Why, Doctor, I feel like a hedgehog! What am I
goin' to do?"
"Why, this is really very interesting!" said the Doctor, taking out his
note-book. "What is your name?"
"Jim Fenton."
"Age?"
"Thirty or forty--somewhere along there."
"H'm!" exclaimed the Doctor, writing out the whole reply. "Occupation?"
"M.D., three C's, double X., two I's."
"H'm! What do you do?"
"Trap, mostly."
"Religious?"
"When I'm skeered."
"Nativity?"
"Which?"
"What is your parentage? Where were you born?"
"Well, my father was an Englishman, my mother was a Scotchman, I was
born in Ireland, raised in Canady, and have lived for ten year in Number
Nine."
"How does your head feel now?"
"It feels as if every har was a pin. Do you s'pose it'll strike in?"
The Doctor looked him over as if he were a bullock, and went on with his
statistics: "Weight, about two hundred pounds; height, six feet two;
temperament, sanguine-bilious."
"Some time when you are in Sevenoaks," said the Doctor, slipping his
pencil into its sheath in his note-book, and putting his book in his
pocket, "come and see me."
"And stay all night?" inquired Jim, innocently.
"I'd like to see the case again," said Dr. Radcliffe, nodding. "I shall
not detain you long. The matter has a certain scientific interest."
"Well, good-bye, Doctor," said Jim, holding down his hair. "I'm off for
Number Nine. I'm much obleeged for lettin' me go round with ye; an' I
never want to go agin."
Jim went out into the pleasant morning air. The sun had dispelled the
light frost of the night, the sky was blue overhead, and the blue-birds,
whose first spring notes were as sweet and fresh as the blossoms of the
arbutus, were caroling among the maples. Far away to the north he could
see the mountain at whose foot his cabin stood, red in the sunshine,
save where in the deeper gorges the snow still lingered. Sevenoaks lay
at the foot of the hill, on the other hand, and he could see the people
passing to and fro along its streets, and, perched upon the hill-side
among its trees and gardens, the paradise that wealth had built for
Robert Belcher. The first emotion that thrilled him as he emerged from
the shadows of misery and mental alienation was that of gratitude. He
filled his lungs with the vitalizing air, but expired his long breath
with a sigh.
"What bothers me," said Jim to himself, "is, that the Lord lets one set
of people that is happy, make it so thunderin' rough for another set of
people that is onhappy. An' there's another thing that bothers me," he
said, continuing his audible cogitations. "How do they 'xpect a feller
is goin' to git well, when they put 'im where a well feller'd git sick?
I vow I think that poor old creetur that wanted me to kill her is
straighter in her brains than any body I seen on the lot. I couldn't
live there a week, an' if I was a hopeless case, an' know'd it, I'd hang
myself on a nail."
Jim saw his host across the road, and went over to him. Mr. Buffum had
had a hard time with his pipes that morning, and was hoarse and very red
in the face.
"Jolly lot you've got over there," said Jim. "If I had sech a family as
them, I'd take 'em 'round for a show, and hire Belcher's man to do the
talkin'. 'Walk up, gentlemen, walk up, and see how a Christian can treat
a feller bein'. Here's a feller that's got sense enough left to think
he's in hell. Observe his wickedness, gentlemen, and don't be afraid to
use your handkerchers.'"
As Jim talked, he found he was getting angry, and that the refractory
hair that covered his poll began to feel hot. It would not do to betray
his feelings, so he ended his sally with a huge laugh that had about as
much music and heartiness in it as the caw of a crow. Buffum joined him
with his wheezy chuckle, but having sense enough to see that Jim had
really been pained, he explained that he kept his paupers as well as he
could afford to.
"Oh, I know it," said Jim. "If there's anything wrong about it, it don't
begin with you, Buffum, nor it don't end with you; but it seems a little
rough to a feller like me to see people shut up, an' in the dark, when
there's good breathin' an' any amount o' sunshine to be had, free gratis
for nothin'."
"Well, they don't know the difference," said Buffum.
"Arter a while, I guess they don't," Jim responded; "an', now, what's
the damage? for I've got to go 'long."
"I sha'n't charge you anything," whispered Mr. Buffum. "You hav'n't said
anything about old Tilden, and it's just as well."
Jim winked, nodded, and indicated that he not only understood Mr.
Buffum, but would act upon his hint. Then he went into the house, bade
good-bye to Mr. Buffum's "women," kissed his hand gallantly to the elder
Miss Buffum, who declared, in revenge, that she would not help him on
with his pack, although she had intended to do so, ands after having
gathered his burdens, trudged off northward.
From the time he entered the establishment on the previous evening, he
had not caught a glimpse of Harry Benedict. "He's cute," said Jim, "an'
jest the little chap for this business." As he came near the stump over
the brow of the hill, behind which the poor-house buildings disappeared,
he saw first the brim of an old hat, then one eye, then an eager,
laughing face, and then the whole trim little figure. The lad was
transformed. Jim thought when he saw him first that he was a pretty
boy, but there was something about him now that thrilled the woodsman
with admiration.
Jim came up to him with: "Mornin,' Harry!" and the mountain that shone
so gloriously in the light before him, was not more sunny than Jim's
face. He sat down behind the stump without removing his pack, and once
more had the little fellow in his arms.
"Harry," said Jim, "I've had ye in my arms all night--a little live
thing--an' I've be'n a longin' to git at ye agin. If ye want to, very
much, you can put yer arms round my neck, an' hug me like a little bar.
Thar, that's right, that's right. I shall feel it till I see ye agin.
Ye've been thinkin' 'bout what I telled ye last night?"
"Oh yes!" responded the boy, eagerly, "all the time."
"Well, now, do you know the days--Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and the rest
of 'em?"
"Yes, sir, all of them."
"Now, remember, to-day is Wednesday. It will be seven days to next
Wednesday, then Thursday will be eight, Friday, nine, Saturday, ten. You
always know when Saturday comes, don't ye?"
"Yes, because it's our school holiday," replied Harry.
"Well, then, in ten days--that is, a week from next Saturday--I shall
come agin. Saturday night, don't ye go to bed. Leastways, ef ye do, ye
must git out of the house afore ten o'clock, and come straight to this
old stump. Can ye git away, an' nobody seen ye?"
"Yes, I hope so," replied the boy. "They don't mind anything about us. I
could stay out all night, and they wouldn't know where I was."
"Well, that's all right, now. Remember--be jest here with all the clo'es
ye've got, at ten o'clock, Saturday night--ten days off--cut 'em in a
stick every day--the next Saturday after the next one, an' don't git
mixed."
The boy assured him that he should make no mistake.
"When I come, I sh'll bring a hoss and wagin. It'll be a stiddy hoss,
and I sh'll come here to this stump, an' stop till I seen ye. Then ye'll
hold the hoss till I go an' git yer pa, and then we'll wopse 'im up in
some blankits, an' make a clean streak for the woods. It'll be late
Sunday mornin' afore any body knows he's gone, and there won't be no
people on the road where we are goin', and ef we're druv into cover, I
know where the cover is. Jim Fenton's got friends on the road, and
they'll be mum as beetles. Did ye ever seen a beetle, Harry?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, they work right along and don't say nothin' to nobody, but they
keep workin'; an' you an' me has got to be jest like beetles. Remember!
an' now git back to Tom Buffum's the best way ye can."
The boy reassured Jim, gave him a kiss, jumped over the fence, and crept
along through the bushes toward the house. Jim watched him, wrapped in
admiration.
"He's got the ra-al hunter in 'im, jest like his father, but there's
more in 'im nor there ever was in his father. I sh'd kinder liked to 'a'
knowed his ma," said Jim, as he took up his rifle and started in earnest
for his home.
As he plodded along his way, he thought over all the experiences of the
morning.
"Any man," said he to himself, "who can string things together in the
way Benedict did this mornin' can be cured. Startin' in hell, he was all
right, an' everything reasomble. The startin' is the principal p'int,
an' if I can git 'im to start from Number Nine, I'll fetch 'im round. He
never was so much to home as he was in the woods, an' when I git 'im
thar, and git 'im fishin' and huntin', and sleepin' on hemlock, an'
eatin' venison and corn-dodgers, it'll come to 'im that he's been there
afore, and he'll look round to find Abram, an' he won't see 'im, and his
craze 'll kind o' leak out of 'im afore he knows it."
Jim's theory was his own, but it would be difficult for Dr. Radcliffe,
and all his fellow-devotees of science, to controvert it. It contented
him, at least; and full of plans and hopes, stimulated by the thought
that he had a job on hand that would not only occupy his thoughts, but
give exercise to the benevolent impulses of his heart, he pressed on,
the miles disappearing behind him and shortening before, as if the
ground had been charmed.
He stopped at noon at a settler's lonely house, occupied by Mike Conlin,
a friendly Irishman. Jim took the man aside and related his plans. Mike
entered at once upon the project with interest and sympathy, and Jim
knew that he could trust him wholly. It was arranged that Jim should
return to Mike the evening before the proposed descent upon Tom Buffum's
establishment, and sleep. The following evening Mike's horse would be
placed at Jim's disposal, and he and the Benedicts were to drive through
during the night to the point on the river where he would leave his
boat. Mike was to find his horse there and take him home.
Having accomplished his business, Jim went on, and before the twilight
had deepened into night, he found himself briskly paddling up the
stream, and at ten o'clock he had drawn his little boat up the beach,
and embraced Turk, his faithful dog, whom he had left, not only to take
care of his cabin, but to provide for himself. He had already eaten his
supper, and five minutes after he entered his cabin he and his dog were
snoring side by side in a sleep too profound to be disturbed, even by
the trumpet of old Tilden.