"CALEB," said Philip one evening, as the partners and their wives sat
in the parlor of the Somerton home and enjoyed the leisure hour that
came between store-closing and bed-time, "so much important business
has been crowded into the past few months that some smaller ventures
have almost escaped my mind. What ever came of that car-load of walnut
stumps that I sent East last summer?"
"I couldn't have told you much about it if you'd asked me a day
earlier," Caleb replied. "I turned it over to a man in the fine-woods
business--a Grand Army comrade that I met at my old chum Jim's post.
He said at the time that the stumps would undoubtedly pay expenses of
diggin' and shipment, an' maybe a lot more, but 'twould depend entirely
on the stumps themselves. He'd have each of 'em sawed lengthwise an'
a surface section dressed, to show the markings of the grain o' the
wood. It seems that they were so water-soaked that 'twas months after
sawin' before the wood of any of 'em was dry enough to dress, but he
got at some of 'em a few weeks ago, an' though most of 'em wa'n't
above the ordinary, there were two or three that made the furniture
an' decoration men bid against each other at a lively rate. One of 'em
panned out over sixty dollars."
"What? One walnut stump? Sixty dollars?"
"Oh, that's nothing. To work me up, he told me of one, picked up in the
country a few years ago, that brought more than a thousand dollars to
the buyer. The markings were so fine that it was sawn into thin veneers
that were sold for more than their weight in silver. Still, to come
to the point, your entire lot brought about two hundred and seventy
dollars net, an' I've got the check in my pocket to prove it."
"And the land from which they were taken cost me only two hundred
dollars in goods! And there are still hundreds of stumps in it! And I
felt so ashamed and babyish when I learned that I'd been tricked into
buying cleared land, that I almost resolved to recall you by wire, so
that I should be kept from being tricked again in some similar manner!
I shall have to drive out to old Weefer's farm, tell him the story, and
ask him if he has any more walnut clearings for sale."
"Hadn't you better keep quiet about it? Where's the use in killin'
the goose that lays the golden egg? Pick up all the walnut clearin's
that are for sale, an' make what you can out of 'em, before you go to
talkin'; but if you feel that you must say somethin' on the subject
to somebody, an' jubilate a little, go tell Doc Taggess, who owns the
lot you thought you were buyin'. If anybody deserves to make money in
the boom that's comin', Doc does, an' if he could clear his land, now
that he can railroad the logs to market, an' then get out his stumps,
he might get cash enough ahead to pick up a lot of real estate, or
take stock in millin' enterprises, when the water-power ditch is made,
an' so lay up somethin' to keep him out of the poor-house in old age;
for as long as he can practise, he'll give to the poor all that he can
collect from patients that are better off. The chap that handled the
stumps for you asked me a lot of questions about the kind an' quantity
of standin' timber out here, and said he didn't see why we didn't start
mills to turn out furniture lumber an' dimension-stuff, like some that
have made fortunes for men in the backwoods of Indiana and Michigan an'
some other states."
"Let's try it, if our cash and credit aren't already used as far as
they should be. By the way, how is Claybanks corn-flour, Somerton's
brand, going in England?"
"Fairly. We've sent, in all, about four hundred barrels; that's an
average of a hundred a month, with a net profit to us of about thirty
per cent, which is better, I reckon, than any of the big flour shippers
ever dreamed o' makin'. I've been hopin' that the good tidin's of good
food-stuff at about half the price o' bad would work its way into other
parts of London an' out into the country, too; but English people don't
seem to move about an' swap stories an' prices, like us Americans.
I reckon I came home too soon, for the good o' that deal, for I had
a lot o' things in mind to do in London to make corn-meal popular.
It seems to be the English way to let things alone until some of the
upper classes take to 'em, so I was goin' to try the meal on some o'
the swells; but the more I thought of it, the more it seemed that they
too belonged to the follow-my-leader class. So I made up my mind to
begin way up at the tip-top, an' so I wrote a letter to Queen Victoria,
sayin' I'd come all the way from America to make the English people
practically acquainted with the cheapest and most nutritious food known
in the temperate zone, an' that I was catchin' on fairly, but the
common people seemed to think it was common stuff, which it wasn't, as
I would be glad to prove to her. Besides, I knew of Americans richer
than any nobleman in England who had it on their tables every day. I
said I could make six kinds o' bread an' three kinds o' puddin' out o'
corn-meal, an' I'd like a chance to do it some day for her own table;
if she'd let me do it in the palace kitchen, I'd bring my own pans an'
things, so's not to put the help to any trouble,--an' I'd--"
"You--wrote--to--the Queen--of England," Philip exclaimed, "offering to
make corn-bread and meal-pudding for the royal table!"
"That's what I did, an' I took pains to specify that 'twould be made
of Claybanks corn-flour, Somerton's brand, too--not the common meal
that again an' again has let down American corn in foreign minds to
the level of the hog-trough. But it didn't work. Though I put in an
addressed postal card for reply, the good lady never answered my
letter. Too busy, I s'pose."
Philip stared at Grace, who pressed one hand closely to her lips, while
Mary looked at her husband as if wondering in what entirely original
and unexpected manner, and where, he might next break out. Then Philip
said gravely:--
"How strange! Besides, I doubt whether any other man was ever so
thoughtful as to enclose a reply-card to her Majesty."
"Well, after waitin' a spell I made up my mind that that particular
cake was all dough. One day when I was in the shop, turnin' sample
cakes an' bread out o' the pans, up drove a carriage, an' a couple o'
well-dressed men, one of 'em short an' stout, an' the other kind o'
tallish, came in an' looked about, kind o' cur'us. 'Try some samples,
gentlemen?' said I, thinkin' they looked as if they was used enough to
good feedin' to know it when they saw it. They nodded, stiffish-like,
an' I set 'em down to a little table with a white cloth on it, an'
I set before 'em dodgers, an' muffins, an' cracklin' bread, an'
pan-cakes, all as hot as red pepper, an' some A 1 English butter to try
'em with--an' they do know how to make butter over in England!
"Well, they sampled 'em all, takin' two or three mouthfuls of each,
an' exchanged opinions, which seemed to be favorable, with their eyes
an' heads. While they were eatin', the shop began to get dark, an'
when I looked around to see if a fog had come up all of a-sudden, as
it sometimes does over there, I saw that the street was packed with
people, an' they were jammed up to the doors an' windows. 'It's plain
that gentlemen are not often on exhibition in this part of the town,'
said I to myself. Suddenly the two got up, an' both said 'Thanks,' an'
went out, an' when their carriage started, the crowd set up a cheer.
'Who are they?' I said to a man at the door. He looked at me as if I
had tried to run a counterfeit on him, an' he said, 'Ah, me eye!' but
another chap said:--
"'It's the Prince, an' the Duke o' Somethinorother.'"
"H'm! Yet you never got a reply on that postal card!"
"Never. I meant to try again, an' register the letter, so as to be
sure that it got into the right hands, but somethin' kept tellin' me
'twas time to get back home. But if you'll let me make a trip again
next fall, at my own expense, I'll try for better luck. Anyway, I'll
work the corn-meal plan on Liverpool an' other cities, an' if it
takes as well as it's done in London, 'twon't be long before a good
many thousan's of bushels of Claybanks corn'll be saved from the
distilleries, in the course of a year."
"Phil," Grace remarked, "Caleb's wish to go abroad in the fall reminds
me that I want you to take me East for a few weeks in the spring, and
we ought to begin our preparations at once. As 'tis near Christmas,
Mary and I have been talking of presents, and particularly of one which
you and Caleb can join in giving us and at the same time secure to
yourselves more of the business and social companionship of your wives.
We want a housekeeper."
"Sensible women!" Philip replied. "As to your husbands, they will be
delighted--eh, Caleb? If it weren't that servants can't be had in this
part of the country, and help, after the Claybanks manner, would have
banished all sense of privacy, I should think myself a villain of
deepest dye for having allowed the wife of the principal merchant of
Claybanks to cook my meals and do all the remaining work of the house,
and I don't doubt that Caleb feels similarly about Mary."
"Well," said Caleb, "work that wa'n't degradin' to my dear mother
oughtn't to seem too mean for my wife; but, on the other hand, my
mother shouldn't have done it if I could have helped it, 'specially if
she'd have tried also to do a full day's clerk-work in a store once in
ev'ry twenty-four hours."
"That explains our position," Grace added. "You two men are so full of
new business of various kinds that Mary and I should be in the store
all the while. Soon that dreadful pork-house must open for the season,
and then we shall see less of you than ever. A good housekeeper will
cost no more than a good clerk, and we must have one or the other. We
don't want a clerk, if we can avoid it; at present we have the business
entirely in our own hands, and when there are no customers in the
store, we have as much privacy and freedom as if we were in the house.
Mary knows a good woman in New York who will be glad to come here as
maid-of-all-work, if she may be called housekeeper instead of servant;
she has a grown son who wishes to be a farmer and to begin where land
is cheaper and richer than it is in the vicinity of New York. With such
a woman to care for the house we can spend most of our time in the
store, hold the trade of such womenfolk as deal with us, and try to
get the remainder; for where women and their daughters buy, the husband
and brothers will also go."
"That's as sure as shootin'," said Caleb. "Do you know that in spite of
the cyclone the store has done twice as much business since you came as
it ever did before in the same months? I'd be downright sorry for the
other merchants in town if I didn't believe that we're soon goin' to
have a big increase of population, and there'll be business enough for
all. Philip deserves credit for a lot of the new business, an' his wife
for more, which isn't Philip's fault, but his fortune in havin' married
just that sort of woman. If nobody else'll say it, I s'pose it won't be
presumin' for me to say that a small percentage of the increase o' the
last two or three months has come through a young woman whose name used
to be Mary Truett."
"Small percentage, indeed!" Grace exclaimed. "Mary has secured more new
business than I did in the same number of weeks, and she has done it
so easily, too. She never seems to be thinking of business when she's
talking to a customer, yet she instinctively knows what each woman
wants, and places the proper goods before her, while I, very likely,
would be thinking more of the woman than of the business."
"That's merely a result of experience," said Mary. "I'm nearly thirty,
with a business experience of ten years; you were a mere chit of
twenty-three when you married. Still, I don't believe any hired clerk,
of no matter how many years' experience, could do half as well as
either of us."
"For the very good reason," said Philip, "that both of you are
practically owners of the business. No clerk can be as useful in any
business as one of the proprietors."
"That remark would 'a' hurt my feelin's, a year ago," said Caleb;
"but since my name went on that sign over the door, I've been lookin'
backward at my old self a lot, an' lookin' down on my old self, too.
Perhaps the difference has come o' gettin' rid o' malaria, perhaps
o' takin' a wife; but I'm goin' to make b'lieve, after makin' full
allowance for ev'rythin' else, that nobody can bring out the best
that's in him until he begins to work for himself."
"No other person would dare criticise your old self in my presence,
Caleb," said Philip, "but you've certainly acquired a new manner in
business, and it's extremely fetching in more senses than one. One of
the best things about it is that the natives notice it, and talk of
it to one another, and are pleased by it, for you're one of them, you
know. I'm a mere outsider."
"Do they really notice it?" asked Caleb, with a suggestion of the
old-time pathos in his face and voice, "an' are they really pleased?
Because, as you say, I'm really one of 'em, an' I'm proud of it. I've
gone through pretty much ev'rythin' they have--'specially the malaria,
an' now that their good times are comin', I'm glad I'm with 'em. But
to think--" here he walked deliberately to a mirror and studied his
own face for a moment--"to think that only so little time ago as when
you came here I felt like an old, used-up man, an' I'd put my house in
order, so to speak, against the time when I should have my last tussle
with malaria, an' go under, with the hope o' goin' upward."
"That was before you met Mary," Grace suggested.
"Yes; that's so."
"And he must get rid of Mary before he can ever have an opportunity to
feel that way again," said the lady referred to, as she looked proudly
at her husband. "Old! Used up! The most spirited, active, hopeful,
cheerful man I ever met! But, really, you were different, Caleb, when
I first saw you; it doesn't seem possible that you're the same man.
From what I've seen of the people here, I believe it is one of the
ways of the West for men to try to look older than they are; you must
use your influence--and example--to make them stop it. In New York a
man seldom looks old until he is very near the grave; the most active
and fine-looking business men are beyond threescore, as a rule--about
twenty years older than you, Caleb."
"Ye--es, but they weren't brought up on malaria, pork, plough-handles,
an' saleratus biscuit," said Caleb. "There's hope for a change here,
though. Doc Taggess says there's nothin' like as much malaria in town
as there was before the swamps were drained, and the good times comin',
because o' the railroad, 'll make some more changes for the better,
for all of us."
For a few moments each member of the quartet seemed to have dropped
into revery. The silence was broken by Philip, who said:--
"Caleb, a year ago even you would not have dared to prophesy the
changes that have been made, and those which are within sight, yet to
you belongs the credit for all of them."
"To me? Well, I've heard and seen so many amazin' calculations in the
past three months that I'm prepared to stand up under almost anythin',
but I'd like to know how you figure it out that I've done anythin' in
particular."
"'Tis easily told. If you hadn't fallen in love with Miss Truett,
and she with you, her brother wouldn't have come out here, and the
malaria wouldn't have been drained from the swamps, and the railway
wouldn't have been projected, and the farmers wouldn't have become
owners of guaranteed stocks, which has put new life into many of them,
and there'd have been no inducement for manufacturers to use our
water-power and our hard woods, and no bank would have been possible,
nor any of the public improvements,--paving, water service, and others
that will soon be under way. Don't you see?"
"Ye--es, as far as you've gone, but I wouldn't have known there was
such a person as Mary--bless her!--if you hadn't sent me East, an'
your wife--bless her too--hadn't given me a letter of introduction to
Mary, so I don't see but that honors are about even. You might as well
go back a little further, though, and say that you wouldn't have been
here to send me East if your Uncle Jethro hadn't loved your father,
an' made up his mind that your father's son shouldn't fool away his
life in pleasin' his eyes an' fancies in New York, but should get the
disciplinin' that makes a man out of a youngster that's got the real
stuff born in him."
"Caleb, what are you saying?"
"Exactly what your Uncle Jethro said to me--an' to nobody else. Mebbe
I hadn't ought to have let it out; mebbe, on the other hand, it may
make you feel kindlier to your Uncle Jethro. But, to go on backward,
there wouldn't have been any Jethro to lay up a business start for you
if the Somerton family hadn't begun somewhere back in the history of
the world, an' when you get that far back you might as well go farther
an' say that if Noah hadn't built the ark, or if he'd been in too big
a hurry to get out of it, there wouldn't have been any of us to do
anythin'. I tell you, Philip, an' just you keep it in mind against
anythin' that may turn up anywhere or at any time, that when there's
any glory or credit to be given out, an' you want to do the square
thing, you'll have to spread it so thin that nobody'll get enough of it
to make him feel over an' above cocky."
* * * * *
People, like nations, usually become happy in prosperity, but through
prosperity their lives become less eventful, and consequently less
interesting to other people. The water-power of Claybanks' "crik" was
soon developed, and the mills that were erected, and the people who
came to them, made new demands and prices for real estate, as well as
for certain farm products. But before all this had come to pass Grace
made haste to gratify a consuming desire to spend the springtime at her
birthplace in the East. While she was there, Caleb one day received the
following despatch from Philip:--
"Caleb Wright Somerton born last night. May he become
as good a man as you."
Caleb showed the despatch to his wife, and then started to put it
between the leaves of his Bible; but Mary made haste to put it in a
frame, under glass, and affix it to the front of the store, to the
great interest of the people of Claybanks and vicinity and to the great
benefit of the business of Somerton & Wright.