HIS JOURNEY'S END
Excitement prevailed in the home of Aunt Kate in Old Rock. There was a
soft sound of feminine feet rushing about. Much searching for mislaid
articles of apparel was taking place and those hastening made nervous
demands for assistance upon those hurrying.
The disturbance in this peaceful household was due to the receipt of
knowledge that Charles Augustus and his mother had returned from New
York during the preceding night. Preparations were now in progress for
the departure of Virginia and Helen to greet the returned ones in a
fitting manner.
At last the two girls were appropriately garbed and Aunt Kate kissed
them good bye at the front door and, with a kindly smile upon her face,
watched them run across the meadow towards the pond, making farewell
signals with their canoe paddles.
An hour later there was a sharp rap of the old fashioned knocker on the
front door. "Mercy sakes upon us," muttered Aunt Kate. "What business
has anybody coming here at this time of day?" A look of aversion crept
over her face. "I'll bet my boots it is an agent or a peddler. I'll
send him packing pretty quick with a flea in his ear." Apparently bent
upon carrying out this peculiar attention she hurried into the hall.
Bending low, she pulled aside the curtain of a side light and peered
out. The feet and legs before her advertised their owner as a man.
"It is a peddler," she murmured. Her gentle face assumed a stern and
forbidding aspect. Suddenly, she jerked the door open and, glowering at
the intruder, cried, "Go away! I don't want--"
The victim of this unusual reception was her brother Obadiah.
"Land o' Goshen, how you frightened me, Obadiah Dale," Aunt Kate
reproached him as soon as she recovered from her surprise. "Don't
you know any better than to scare a body half to death?"
"I didn't intend to frighten you, Kate," Obadiah protested, when he
got over his own astonishment.
"The bad place is paved with good intentions," she quoted with
sternness and, as her brother hesitated upon the porch, puzzled at his
extraordinary greeting, she commanded, "Come in. What are you waiting
out there for? Must I lead you in?" Giving him a ceremonious kiss, she
ushered him into the large back room where the table prepared for
luncheon reminded her to be hospitable. "Have you had breakfast,
Obadiah? I'll fix you something in a minute."
"Yes, on the train. I don't want anything to eat, Kate."
Satisfied that her brother was not starving, she gazed at him over the
tops of her spectacles with a humorous twinkle in her eyes. "This _is_
a surprise. It is the first time that you have visited me since--" She
paused in sudden indignation. "Obadiah Dale," she went on sharply,
"you have never deigned to honor me with a visit in my own home."
He was nervous and ill at ease as he answered, "I know, Kate, but I'm a
very--"
She interrupted him, in a gentler mood. "Yes, I know, Obadiah. The years
have run swiftly. Yesterday we were boy and girl together at the old
home. Today we are old folks, the best part of our lives spent. The page
of our earthly hour is nearly written and there is only room for a few
more sentences." She glared at him with great severity and sniffed,
"At least, we'd better see that these lines have something good about
us."
"Yes, Kate," he agreed meekly.
"I know that you want to see--Virginia. She's not here, Obadiah. She
has gone up to the head of the pond to see Charles Augustus, the lame
boy who was operated upon," she told him.
Obadiah nodded. "How far is that from here? Can I walk it?"
Aunt Kate considered. "It's about three miles by road. You will get
lost and never find the place. The girls will be back by two or three
o'clock. Can't you make yourself comfortable and visit with me until
then?"
"I do want to see Virginia. She has been away a long time." He jumped
to his feet and moved nervously about. "I think that I shall walk there,
if you don't mind, Kate."
His anxiety awakened the sympathy of his sister. "You are not used to
strolls like that. I am afraid that it will not be good for you. I have
a horse that is old and fat and slow but he can haul us there if you can
hitch him up."
"That will do." Obadiah was much relieved. "I'll drive your horse. I
used to do it when I was a boy."
"That was a long time ago. You may have forgotten." An idea struck her.
"Do fashions change in harness? If so, you won't know a thing about
it and it won't be safe to trust you."
The employer of hundreds was disgusted at his sister's display of lack
of confidence in his abilities. "Harnesses haven't changed," he
insisted, dryly.
At the barn, Archimedes was brought forth and Obadiah Dale, millionaire
manufacturer, essayed to harness the steed to the family vehicle. He
displayed great energy and his enthusiasm increased with the passage
of time. Archimedes was an ideal animal for the mill owner's
experimentations. In all of his impressive dignity of weight and size,
the animal waited motionless while Obadiah buckled and unbuckled straps
in the making and correction of his errors. Minutes passed and
disaster threatened only when, in slipping the bit between the
massive teeth, a couple of the manufacturer's fingers inadvertently
attended the linked metal. Being asleep, the animal failed to take
advantage of it.
At last, Obadiah, viewing his handiwork with pride, signified that
all things were in readiness for the journey. Aunt Kate had noted his
prolonged efforts with grave suspicion. She now approached Archimedes in
the critical mood of an irritated C. O. at Saturday morning inspection.
Obadiah took humble position, two paces to her right and rear.
"That trace is twisted. Straighten it!" she commanded.
He corrected this oversight.
She surveyed the bridle and whirled upon him, horror depicted in her
eyes. "Obadiah Dale," she exclaimed, "haven't you any better sense
than to take your own sister driving without buckling the reins to the
bit. Lands sakes, I might have been dragged to a terrible death."
Strange to relate, when this grave mistake had been overcome and all
things were in order; in spite of the conclusive evidences of Obadiah's
incompetence, Aunt Kate permitted him to drive. As she climbed into
the surrey, she announced, "I'll sit back here where I can get out if
anything goes wrong."
This precaution as well as the general attitude of his sister towards
Archimedes, had persuaded Obadiah that he had to do with a fractious
steed, notwithstanding that all outward appearances justified the
conclusion that Archimedes was a cow in soul and action.
The mill owner shoved open the sliding door of the barn with an anxious
eye upon the fat back as if fearful that he might gallop wildly forth
even as a fire horse leaving a truck house in response to an alarm.
Archimedes never budged.
Obadiah climbed clumsily over the front wheel, the reins hanging loosely
from his hands. Seating himself, he promptly drew them taut, prepared
for any emergency.
"Be careful, Obadiah," Aunt Kate warned him from the back seat.
"Gid-ap!" Obadiah spoke in a soothing voice suitable to a high strung
animal.
Archimedes held his ground.
Obadiah raised his voice in some degree, "Gid-ap!" he exclaimed.
Archimedes might have been cast in a supporting part in an equestrian
statue for all the notice he took of what transpired about him.
In vain Obadiah amplified his efforts. "This fool horse is balky," he
grumbled to Aunt Kate.
"Archimedes balky, fiddle-de-dee," she answered. "Maybe he's tied."
Past experience caused her to examine the vicinity to be assured that
through inadvertence they were not made fast to anything by chains
or cables. Suddenly, she became aware of Obadiah's firm rein. "No
wonder!" she cried, "You are holding him too tight. You don't know how
to drive. Give me the lines." Leaning forward over the back of the
front seat Aunt Kate seized the reins and gave three or four swinging
pulls as a conductor signaling to the engineman ahead. Simultaneously
she made clicking sounds with her lips reminiscent of swine enjoying a
milky repast.
Archimedes responded readily to this treatment and moved slowly forward.
"There," Aunt Kate said with great satisfaction as she returned the
reins to Obadiah. "That's the way to drive a horse." As they turned
out of the driveway into the road, she warned him, "Do be careful of
the automobiles."
"Why should I be careful of them? Can't they take care of themselves
up here?" he demanded, meanwhile tugging at the reins, and then, "Who
broke this fool horse?"
Aunt Kate leaned forward. "Where?" she asked with great anxiety only
to quickly drop back into her seat with a suppressed, "Oh!"
Regardless of the efforts of the mill owner, the steed drifted gradually
towards the gutter.
"This horse isn't bridlewise," Obadiah declared in disgust. "I might
as well be trying to drive a cow."
"He has more sense than lots of people I know," Aunt Kate answered
with a meaning look at her brother. "He wants to get out of the way
of automobiles."
For a few minutes Archimedes was permitted to follow the way of the
gutter in peace, then, "This is ridiculous," protested Obadiah. "I
feel like a perfect idiot driving this way. I'll be hanged if I'll
do it." He yanked and shouted at the horse until, fighting every inch
of the way, the animal drifted towards the crown of the road.
With nervous eyes, Aunt Kate searched the highway back of them for signs
of approaching machines. "Obadiah, look out. Here comes a car," she
screamed.
Alarmed at her tone, his body stiffened to meet the shock of imminent
collision. He jerked his head about fearfully to perceive a car
following them a mile away. "Why did you startle me that way? I thought
something was about to hit us," he blurted.
The horn of the approaching machine demanded the road. Obadiah tugged at
Archimedes anew. The horse answered but slowly.
"Hurry, Obadiah, they are running into us," screamed Aunt Kate.
The mill owner redoubled his efforts to get out of the way as a series
of frantic squawks and the grind of brakes sounded from behind them.
In desperation, Obadiah jerked out the whip and gave Archimedes a smart
clip. The horse bounded clumsily and stopped in the middle of the road.
The petted animal's astonishment at this treatment was such that he had
to pause for consideration.
"Don't you strike my horse that way," cried Aunt Kate indignantly,
her mind diverted from the menacing automobile by the punishment of her
property. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
Obadiah put up the whip, leaving the motionless Archimedes to meditate
upon his injuries in the center of the highway while the automobile
worked its way around. It came opposite to them, a flivver of the
cheapest type--mere dust beside Obadiah's own car.
A rough, angry man glared at the mill owner and bawled, "You old
moss-back, do you think that you own this road? When somebody takes a
wheel off of that old ark, it may"--the voice was very doubtful--"knock
some sense into your bean. Don't you know enough to put out your hand
when you stop, you mutton-headed fool. If there was a constable about
I'd have you chucked into the calaboose."
Obadiah sat speechless under this insolence. Possibly he was becoming
inured to unkind words. As the car disappeared in the distance his tongue
was loosened, "Kate, did you get their number?" he inquired with great
anxiety.
"No. Why on earth should I want their number? I hope I never see them
again."
He almost stammered in the flood of his wrath. "If I had it, I'd
prosecute them--have them fined and put in prison."
"What for--scolding us?" inquired Aunt Kate softly.
He did not answer for a time. When he turned his temper had departed.
"Kate, I was wrong, I suppose," he said.
She looked at him curiously and there was affection in her glance; but
her voice was stern as she replied, "Obadiah, you were headstrong and
it led you into trouble, as it used to when you were a boy."
"Yes, Kate." In Obadiah's tones was a new note.
Thereafter, Archimedes pursued his way in the safety of the gutter
until they turned into a little used lane where great trees, decked in
wonderful autumnal colors, arched overhead, and unkempt hedges brushed
their wheels. The birds, disturbed in their preparations for their
trip South, made short, noisy flights ahead of the vehicle, protesting
against the intrusion.
Regardless of this, Obadiah and Archimedes, meditating upon recent
injuries, pursued the path that fate would have them follow.