"NOW, Caleb," said Philip, after the four had been seated at the
breakfast table so long that most of the food had disappeared, "tell us
all about it. Don't leave out anything."
"All right," said Caleb, after emptying his coffee-cup. "I'll begin at
the beginning. I don't s'pose 'tis necessary to tell any of you that
New York is a mighty big city, an' London is another, so--"
"New York savors of business, and so does London," said Philip, "and as
this is Sunday, I must decline to hear a word about worldly things. I'm
amazed that so orthodox a man as you should think of such matters on
Sunday."
"Tell him, Caleb," Grace added, "and tell me also, about something
heavenly--something angelic, at least--something resembling a special
mercy, or a means of grace." As she spoke, she looked so significantly
at Mary, that Caleb could no longer pretend to misunderstand.
"Well," said he, "as I came back double when you expected only to see
me single, I s'pose a word or two of explanation would only be fair to
all concerned. You see, before I started for London I felt pretty well
acquainted with Mary, for I'd been in New York two or three weeks. That
mightn't seem a long time, to some, in which to form an acquaintance
that will last through life an' eternity, but such things depend a lot
on the person who's doin' 'em, an', as you know, my principal business
for years has been to study human nature in general, an' particularly
whatever specimen of it is nearest at hand. In New York it had come to
be as natural as breathin', an' mighty interestin' too, especially when
the person's p'ints were first-rate, an' I had reason to believe that I
was bein' studied at the same time by somebody who had a knack at the
business an' didn't have any reason to mean harm to me."
"Any one--any New Yorker, at least,--would have found Caleb an
interesting subject,--don't you think so?" said Mary, with a shy look
of inquiry.
"I'm very sure that Philip and I did," Grace replied.
"Well, 'twas all of Mrs. Somerton's doin', for she gave me a letter
of introduction to Miss Mary Truett: the Lord reward her accordin' to
her works, as the Apostle Paul said about Alexander the Coppersmith.
I carried a lot of other letters, you'll remember, and every one to
whom they were given was quite polite an' obligin'; but business is
business, so as soon as the business was done, they were done with me.
But Mary wasn't."
"She wasn't allowed to be," Mary whispered.
"I reckon that's so," Caleb admitted; "for somehow I kept wantin' to
hear the sound of her voice just once more--just to see what there was
about it that made it so different from other voices, so I kept makin'
business excuses that I thought were pretty clever an' reasonable-like,
an' she was always good-natured enough to take 'em as they were meant."
"What else could she do?" asked Mary, with an appealing look. "The
rules against personal acquaintances dropping into the store to chat
were quite strict, and applied to heads of departments as well as to
other employees. Caleb's plausible manner deceived no one, but he was
so odd, at first, and so entertaining, that every one in authority in
the store quickly learned to like him, and were glad to see him come
in. They would make excuses to saunter near us, and listen to the
conversation, and whenever he went out, some of them remained to tease
me. They saw through him before I did, and made so much of what they
saw that, in the course of time, I had to work hard to rally myself
whenever I saw Caleb approaching."
"She did it splendidly, too," said Caleb. "In a little while I got so
that my eye could catch her the minute I found myself inside the store,
no matter how many people were between us, yet I'm middlin' short, as
you know, an' she isn't tall. She'd be talkin' business, as sober as
a judge, with somebody, but by the time I got pretty nigh, her face
would look like a lot o' Mrs. Somerton's pet flowers--red roses, an'
white roses, an' a couple o' rich pansies between, an' around 'em all
a great tangle o' gold thread to keep 'em from gettin' away."
"Caleb!" exclaimed Mary. "Your friends want only facts."
"I'm sure he's giving us nothing else," Grace said, looking admiringly
at Mary, while Philip added:--
"He's doing it very nicely, too. Bravo, Caleb! Go on."
"Well, she was kind o' curious about the West, like a good many other
New Yorkers who hadn't ever been away from home, and one day she asked
me if there was any chance out here for a young man who was a civil
engineer and landscape architect. She said so much about the young
man's smartness an' willingness, an' pluck, an' good nature, that
all of a sudden I found myself kind o' hatin' that young man, an' it
didn't take me long to find out why, an' when I saw that the trouble
was that I was downright jealous of him, I said to myself, 'Caleb,
you're an old fool,' an' I put in some good hard prayin' right then
an' there. Suddenly she explained that the young man was her brother,
an'--well, I reckon there never was a prayer bitten off shorter an'
quicker than that prayer was. She wished he could meet me, an' I said
that any brother o' hers could command me at any time an' anywhere, so
we fixed it that I should call at their house that very evenin'. Well,
I liked his looks an' his p'ints in general, an' he asked no end o' the
right kind o' questions, an' she helped him. I told 'em ev'rythin',
good an' bad--specially the latter--malaria, scattered population,
bad roads, poor farming, poor clothes, scarcity of ready cash, all
the houses small an' shabby; for up to that time it seemed to me that
everybody in New York lived in a palace an' wore Sunday clothes ev'ry
day of the week; afterwards I went about with some city missionaries
an' policemen, an' came to the conclusion that the poorest man in this
town an' county is rich, compared with more than half of the people in
New York. But that's gettin' over the fence an' into another field.
Her brother was so interested that nothin' would do but that I should
go back an' take supper with 'em next evenin' an' continue the talk.
Well, 'Barkis was willin',' as a chap in one of your circulatin'
library books said. Pity that library's burned; I'll put up half the
expense of a new one, for if ever there was a means of grace--"
"It shall be replaced," said Philip, "but--one means of grace at a
time. Do go back to the original story."
"Oh! Well, the next day happened to be the one in which I met my old
army chum, Jim, who reconstructed me in the way I wrote you about. One
consequence of Jim's over-haulin' was that when I got to their house
an' walked into their parlor, they didn't know me from Adam; both of
'em stood there, like a couple o' stuck pigs."
"What an elegant expression!" exclaimed Mary.
"You don't say that as if you b'lieved it over an' above hard, my dear,
but I do assure you that the expression means a lot to Western people.
Pretty soon her brother came to himself an' asked what had happened,
an' I said, 'Oh, nothin', except that when I'm in Turkey, an' likely to
stay awhile, I try to do as the turkeys do.' Well, things kept goin'
on, about that way, for some days, an' between thinkin' 'twas time
for that corn-meal to come, an' wishin' that it wasn't, an' wishin' a
lot of other things, I was in quite a state o' mind for a while, an'
self-examination didn't help me much.
"All the time there kep' runnin' in my mind an old sayin' that your
Uncle Jethro was mighty fond of--'There's only one hoss in the world,'
an' the most I could do to keep from bein' a plumb fool was to remind
myself that that sort of a hoss had some rights of its own that
ought to be respected. I showed off my own good p'ints as well as I
could, an' I coaxed Mary to go about with me considerable, because
Mrs. Somerton had told me that her judgment and taste were remarkably
good,--that's the excuse I made,--an' we talked about a lot o' things,
an' found we didn't disagree about much. I accidentally let out what I
was goin' to England for, an' she got powerful interested in it, for
she'd read an' heard lots about the way the poorest English live in big
cities, so she thought I was really goin' on missionary work, an' she
said she would almost be willing to be a man if she could have such a
job.
"She looked so splendid when she said it that I felt plumb
electrified--felt just as if a new nerve had suddenly been put into me
some way, so I made bold to say that she'd do that sort o' work far
better as a woman, an' that there was a way for her to do it, too, if
she was willin', an' if her minister would say a few words appropriate
to that kind of arrangement."
"That is exactly the way he spoke," said Mary, "and as coolly as if he
wasn't saying anything of special importance."
"Caleb's mind is sometimes in the clouds," Grace said, "where
everything for the time being appears just as it should be."
"That must be so, I reckon, Mrs. Somerton," said Caleb, "seein' that
you say it; but I want to remark that if I was in the clouds that day,
I got out of 'em mighty quick, an' down to earth, an' mebbe a mighty
sight lower; for Mary suddenly turned very white, an' right away I felt
as if Judgment Day had come, an' I'd been roped off among the goats.
But all of a sudden she turned rosy, an' said, very gentle-like an'
sweet, ''Tis a long way to London, an' you might change your mind on
the way.' Said I, ''Tis longer to eternity, but I'll be of the same
mind till then, an' after, too.' She was kind o' skittish for a while
after that, but she didn't do any kickin', which I took for a good
sign."
"Kicking, indeed!" said Mary, studying the decoration of her
coffee-cup. "Breathing was all the poor thing dared hope to do."
"Well, at last she said she thought it might be better for me to go
alone, so both of us could have a fair chance to think it over, an' I
said that I wouldn't presume to doubt the good sense of whatever she
thought, an' that her will was law to me, an' would go on bein' so as
long as she would let it. Just then the corn-meal came, an' I went.
After I got fairly started on the trip, I found myself feelin' kind o'
glad she wasn't with me. As we've just been eatin' breakfast, I won't
go into particulars; but after I got over bein' seasick, I felt as well
an' strong as a giant, an' I ran a private prayer an' praise meetin'
all the way across. At first I was sorry that I hadn't asked her for
her picture to take along, but I soon found that I had one--had it in
both eyes, day an' night, an' all the time I was in London, too, an'
the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to see the original again.
"This bein' Sunday, I won't say anythin' more about the business than
that I got it started well, didn't slight it, an' left it in good
hands. Gettin' back to the United States appeared to take a year; I
used to look at as much as a passenger could see of the engine, an'
wish I could put my heart into it to make it work faster. One day we
reached New York about sundown, an' I s'pose I needn't say whose house
I made for at once, with my heart in my mouth. 'Twasn't hard to make
out that she wasn't a bit sorry to see me, so my heart got out of my
mouth at once, an' gave my tongue a change. She asked about my trip,
an' told me about her letter to you about her brother, an' about your
kind invitation to him, an' how busy he already was in Claybanks, an'
she was able to tell me a lot about both of you, all of which I was
mighty glad to hear, but after a while there came a kind o' silent
spell, so I said:--
"Speakin' about thinkin' it over, I've been doin' nothin' else, an' I
haven't changed my mind. How is it with you?' She didn't say anythin',
for about a million hours, it seemed to me, but at last she put out
both of her hands, kind o' slow-like, but put 'em out all the same,
bless her; so I--"
"Caleb," exclaimed Mrs. Wright, severely.
"We understand," said Philip, "having had a similar experience a few
years ago;" and Grace said:--
"Blushes are very becoming to you, Caleb."
"Thank you--very much. But how do you s'pose I felt next mornin' after
wakin' up with the feelin' that this world was Paradise, an' that it
couldn't be true that there were such things as sin an' sorrow an'
trouble, an' then seein' the whole front of my mornin' paper covered
with the Claybanks cyclone, an' nothin' to tell who was killed an' who
was spared! 'Twas nigh on to seven o'clock when I saw the news, an'
for a few minutes I did the hardest, fastest thinkin' I ever did in my
life. I sent you a despatch, hopin' that you were among the saved, an'
by eight o'clock I was at Mary's house. She'd seen the paper, so she
wasn't surprised to see me. She was just startin' for the store, so I
walked along with her, an' I said:--
"It couldn't have come at a more awful time, so far as my feelin's are
concerned, but the Claybanks people are my own people, after a fashion,
an' some of 'em need me--that is, they'll get along better if they have
me to talk to for a while. Will you forgive me if I hurry out to them?
You won't think me neglectful, or less loving than I've promised to be,
will you?' Then what did that blessed woman do but quote Scripture at
me--'Whither thou goest I will go, an' where thou lodgest I will lodge,
and thy people shall be my people.' 'Twas a moment or two before I took
it all in; then I said, to make sure that I wasn't dreamin', 'Do you
mean that you'll marry me--to-day--an' go out to Claybanks with me by
this evenin's train?' An' she said, 'Could I have said it plainer?' By
that time we were in a hoss-car, so I couldn't--"
"Caleb!" again exclaimed Mrs. Wright, warningly.
"All right, my dear; I won't say it. I didn't know, until afterward,
that Mrs. Somerton had been fillin' Mary up with letters about me an'
my supposed doin's for some of the folks out here. I don't doubt that
those stories were powerful influential in bringin' things to a head.
Well, while she went to the store to give notice to quit, an' to have a
fuss, perhaps, all on my account, I went to a newspaper office to find
out if any more news had come since daylight began. I wanted to know
the worst, whatever it was, an' when they told me that nobody was dead,
so far as could be learned, I wanted to wipe up part of the floor of
that newspaper office with my knees, an' I didn't care a continental
who might see me do it, either.
"Then I went down to her store, an' got a word with her, though she was
rattlin' busy. Queer, though, how sharp-eyed some of those New Yorkers
are. Mary hadn't had a bit of trouble. The firm wasn't surprised when
she began to make her little statement--they said they'd seen, a month
or two before, how matters were likely to go, so they'd selected her
successor, sorry though they were at the idea of losing her. They
hadn't supposed the notice to quit would be so sudden, but after they
compared notes about the front page of a mornin' paper they agreed that
they'd be likely to lose Mary as soon as I struck New York. I s'posed
men as busy as the owners of such a business would have forgotten
the name of Claybanks, if they'd ever heard it, an' I wouldn't have
supposed that they'd ever have heard anythin' about me; but bless you,
they knew it all, an' they took Mary's words out of her mouth, as soon
as she explained that a dear friend who had just arrived from Europe
needed her companionship and assistance in a trip to the West. 'We hope
Mr. Wright isn't ill,' said one of the partners, an' the other said,
'We greatly hope so, for we learn from the Commercial Agency that he
is really as prominent and useful a man as there is in his county.'
Think o' that,--not that the Agency, whatever it is, was right, but
think of me bein' on record in any way in New York, an' of those old
chaps havin' known all about Mary an' me! It's plain enough that New
York folks are as keen-eyed as the best, an' that they've got one thing
that we Westerners don't know a single thing about, an' that's system.
"But I'm strayin' again. At the store I arranged with her that we
should be married at her church at four o'clock that afternoon. Soon
after leavin' the store I got your despatch, which I didn't doubt had
already been read up in heaven--bless you both! It didn't take more
than two hours to duplicate the orders of a few weeks before; then I
went to her house, for the last time, an' she was already dressed for
the weddin'--dressed just as she is now. There were a couple of hours
to spare, an' as I'd ordered our railroad tickets, I improved the time
by tryin' to persuade her relatives, who had been called in on short
notice, that she was goin' to be in safe hands. But there wasn't a
chance to talk more'n two minutes at a time, for the door-bell kept
ringin', an' messengers kept comin' in with flowers an' presents,
most of 'em from people at the store. There's two trunks full of 'em,
comin' along by express. Of course we were goin' to have a quiet
weddin'--nobody invited to the church but her fam'ly an' two or three
of her relatives, an' my old army chum Jim; but when we got there, a
whole lot of folks were inside the church, an' when we started out
after the ceremony they crowded to the aisle, an' some threw flowers
in it, an' then for the first time the dear little woman learned that
the store people had turned out in force, the proprietors among 'em,
an' all the women kissed the bride, an' a lot of 'em cried, an'--oh,
nobody ever saw such goin's on at any weddin' in the Claybanks church.
An'--to wind up the story--here we are, ready for business, when Monday
comes. I telegraphed Black Sam to find an empty house for us somewhere,
knowin' that my old room was gone, an'--"
"You're to live with us," said Philip. "You know we've room to spare,
and I know that my wife will be delighted to have your wife with her."
"Thank you, Philip. Mrs. Somerton's taste in women is as correct as in
everythin' else."
"But doesn't your brother know?" asked Grace of Mary.
"No," was the reply. "Some things are easier told than written.
Besides, he's the dearest brother in the world, and thinks whatever I
do is right. How I long to see him!"
"I'll find him at once," said Philip, rising. "'Twas very thoughtless
of me to have neglected him so long, but between astonishment and
delight I--"
"You won't have far to look," said Caleb, who had moved toward the
window. "Mary, come here, please--stand right beside me--close--to
protect me in case he offers to knock me down."