THE CARRIAGE
After that visit to Mesquite there was never any reason for
complaint of Hilda’s neatness at school. The Mrs. Johnnie, that
Uncle Hank had thought might be classed as a “local seamstress,” had
made up the stuff they took her into plenty of dresses and
undergarments, while as to stockings and shoes, now when she ran out
of an evening to ride with Uncle Hank she had on such as even a
rattlesnake might respect.
These rides in of an evening, on the front of Uncle Hank’s saddle,
with Buckskin going very slowly and soberly, were still the times
best worth while out of all the day. Hilda always came primed with
her day’s news, small happenings about the ranch or at school. But
there arrived an evening when she burst forth somewhat incoherently,
and quite breathlessly, while she was yet climbing on the boot-toe.
“We can get it—can’t we, Uncle Hank?”
“I ’spect so,” the old man agreed, looking down into the flushed,
eager little face as he hauled her up cautiously into his arms. Then
he added, as a casual afterthought, “Get what, Pettie?”
“Oh—I forgot you didn’t know.” Hilda squirmed herself into a
comfortable position. “Clarkie Capadine says the Three C’s is going
to try. Kennie Tazewell, he says it’s every fellow for himself. And
so we can get it—you just now said we could.”
She sat astride the high-pommeled saddle in front of the old man,
her head against his chest. He smiled and slipped his left hand
under the pointed chin.
“What you think you’re talking about, honey?” he inquired.
Hilda tipped her head back further and glanced briefly up at him.
“The carriage,” she said. “Clarkie told us about it at recess. It’s
got sea springs—sea springs, like waves, Uncle Hank.” (The small
brown hands paddled about in the air to piece out a vocabulary that
failed to undulate in the required luxurious manner.) “Sea springs,
and ‘the best of material everywhere in its construction.’” (Smooth
going here on a direct quotation from some manufacturer’s
catalogue.)
“Honey,” said Hank with a little drop in his tone, “I’d love to buy
a carriage for the Sorrows—land knows, we need it, with the
ambulance a staggering cripple like it is—one leg broke, an arm in a
sling, both eyes blacked and an ear chawed off—but we ain’t got the
money. You see, Capadine’s fixed differently, Pettie. He could buy a
carriage for his folks any day.”
Hilda had hung in rapt silence upon that fascinating description of
the ambulance, a characterization whose every feature she recognized
perfectly; but now she broke in:
“Oh, I didn’t mean to buy a carriage! We’re going to win it—over at
Dawn—at the fair—it’s the prize for the roping match.”
“Hold on a minute.” Hank tightened one arm around her, and with the
other reached down into the mail sack where, after some fumbling, he
brought out a folded handbill. “Seems to me I saw something of that
sort in here,” he said.
Within the last few months, Lame Jones County had been organized; it
had now a county seat of its own, in the little new cow-town of
Dawn, much nearer to the Three Sorrows than Mesquite; they were
celebrating with a county fair, with all the usual cattle country
contests and the approved cattle country prizes.
The sheet was unfolded in front of them both. Hilda instantly began
to read: “The Committee will spare no pains—” while Hank was running
a finger slowly down the line of prizes offered. It was well that
Buckskin knew the way, for he got no more guidance.
The traveling forefinger reached the prize offered the successful
contestant in the roping match. Hank’s bearded lips moved:
“M-m-m, ‘cushions and cover genu-wine leather,’” he muttered. “You
was about right, Pettie.”
“Well, then, we can get it, can’t we?” she reiterated her demand as
he let her down carefully by one hand at the door-stone.
“Why, you see, Pettie, it’s a prize; and I don’t know for sure yet
whether we’re prize-winners or not.”
“Yes—course it’s a prize.” Hilda looked up at him impatiently,
fairly dancing where she stood. “That’s what I told you at first.
For the best roper. And Shorty’s the best roper.”
“Yes,” assented Hank thoughtfully. “Shorty’s pretty good.”
“Uncle Hank! Shorty’s the best roper in Lame Jones County—bar
none—if old Snake does say it. And Shorty’s ours.”
The old man looked at the great black eyes, glowing with excitement,
the flushed cheeks, the parted, tremulous lips; and he sighed a
little.
“All right, sister. We’ll do the best we can; but don’t let it get
in the way of your supper.”
“I won’t, Uncle Hank.” Hilda shook her head earnestly. She was
answering words he hadn’t spoken; she understood quite as well as
though he had said aloud, “And don’t talk any more about it
to-night,” and she assured him again, “I won’t.”
He rode away to the corral to put up Buckskin, and Hilda hurried
upstairs. He hadn’t laid a command upon her; but she answered to
what she knew to be his wish with a zealous and adorned obedience:
clean frock, smoothly combed curls, perfectly cleaned finger nails,
a composed countenance. When she had accomplished all this she flew
downstairs to watch for his return from the corral. She hastened the
serving of the supper, giving Sam Kee to understand by means of a
hint so broad that it was almost a fib that Uncle Hank was already
in the house.
He arrived at last and went straight to his room, to wash up. Hilda
nearly burst with impatience before he finally came down, the
crinkled black-and-silver hair smooth and damp, the whole man
soberly spick and span. They sat opposite each other at the
dining-table, from which many leaves had been taken out to make it a
suitable size for two, as they had so often sat before, served by
the Chinaman. They talked as usual, but the thing they did not
mention was, as ever in such cases, biggest in the conversation.
“Don’t wiggle your feet so much, Pettie. And eat that fine, juicy
beefsteak. Your Uncle Hank fetched that quarter of beef all the way
from the C Bar C especially so his little girl could have nice fresh
steak, and Sam’s broiled it just right.”
“I will, Uncle Hank,” and Hilda made a violent attack on her portion
of steak. She kept the letter of the law. She never mentioned the
carriage in words; but it pretty nearly wheeled out of her eyes
every time she looked at Uncle Hank—and he saw it. She came nearest
to breaking silence on the forbidden subject when at last he got up
from the table and said, with a touch of embarrassment, that he must
go over to the bunk house and see the boys about some work for
to-morrow. Hilda did not ask to go along, as she often did; she only
said:
“All right, Uncle Hank,” and added suddenly, “Aunt Val and Burchie
will be here in time.”
Hank asked no questions and made no comments. He just took his hat
and went, after a somewhat lengthened and considering survey of her.
She had not meant to follow. But the moment the door closed, her
feet walked her very softly and very quickly after him. The tall old
man strode along the path that led from the side door, around the
corner of Sam Kee’s vegetable garden, and in the dusk Hilda’s little
figure flitted from bush to bush, behind him. She halted quite a
distance away, at the last bush that was big enough to hide her, and
there she gazed and listened, fascinated. Uncle Hank stood at the
edge of the porch, talking to one of the boys. He didn’t speak very
loud.
“Carriage” was the first word she got; then, “There’s some things
that ought to be did, and there’s some things that just has to be
did.” His grammar alone would have assured Hilda that he was very
much in earnest, as he finished, “This here’s one of the kind that
has to be did.”
She saw Shorty squared up before Uncle Hank, half sheepish, half
puzzled.
“Er—I was thinking of trying for that silver trimmed sombrero they
offer for the best gentleman rider.” The lamp shine from inside
showed him grinning broadly. “You know I sure can ride pretty when I
try.”
“Ride pretty!” grunted old Snake, leaning in the doorway. “I ain’t
never seen it. I’ll allow you can rope a little.”
“Well,” cut in Hank, “it’s come right down to this: Charley’s
buckboard is a wreck. It just can’t be drove no more. The ambulance
is all we’ve got to take Miss Val and the kiddies out in, and it’s
not very much better.”
“That’s so,” agreed Thompson.
“We’ll see Charley’s children hoofing it, or riding broncos,” Uncle
Hank said severely, “unless something’s did pretty quick.”
“You want me to rope for the carriage?” Apparently Shorty began to
understand.
“I reckon you can wear your old hat another season,” Snake jeered.
Hank turned and sat down on the top step, and Hilda, afraid that he
would see her, backed off into the friendly darkness where the talk
came to her only in broken scraps. She could tell that they were
planning the campaign. Shorty said he would catch up his crack
roping pony, Pardner, and grain feed him; he would go over his rope
and entire equipment, and be in training for the match from this day
forth.
Of course he would. They always did practice for the contests, even
when they were the best ropers in Lame Jones County—bar none. She
wasn’t much interested in hearing them go over the names of those
who, they were sure, would enter for the roping match. Shorty said
Lee Romero was about the only one of the lot that he was much afraid
of. Lee was with the Matador ranch this year, and known to be out
after that carriage for them. In the dark Hilda smiled, all to
herself. Lee was one of the Romero relatives of Maybelle and Fayte
Marchbanks. Let him be out after the carriage for the Matador—Shorty
would win it for the Three Sorrows. Bubbling with triumph, she
slipped back to the house and up to her own room. She undressed
without lighting her lamp. All that night the new carriage glided
and sparkled through her dreams.
Two days later Miss Valeria and Burch came home. No word of the
wonderful new enterprise that was afoot was said to Aunt Val—Hilda
knew better than that—but on the first day, the instant breakfast
was swallowed, Hilda had her little brother out at the asequia, a
favorite play place, and told him all about the carriage they were
going to have. It got Burch’s attention because it had wheels. He
was almost as silent with other people as when he went away, but to
Hilda, he talked a little when the subject interested him—short
sentences, like a man. Now she pulled down the cottonwood limb that
leaned low across the water, had him climb to his place on it,
seated herself beside him and gently waggling and teetering the
bough with a pushing foot against the ground, she declared:
“That’s the way the new carriage will ride, Burchie. And Uncle Hank
said Shorty was to get it for us. Shorty has to do it if Uncle Hank
says so.”
Burch, filled full of breakfast and happy confidence, voted a strong
yes. The two childish voices rippled an accompaniment to the
rippling water. A king’s coach of state would have appeared a modest
vehicle beside the one Hilda described. She had no need to have seen
it. The shining of her belief in Uncle Hank alone lent glitter to
the varnish and softness to the cushions.
A dragon-fly flashed out from the other bank and hung above the
water in all its burnished bravery, turning, wheeling, flickering,
darting here and there, a dazzle of blue-black polish on body and
wing. Hilda welcomed it as an illustration. She had all along been
afraid that her eloquence alone might fall short of convincing the
material-minded Burch. Here was something concrete, visible, with
which to back up her assurances, and she cried out softly:
“It looks just like that, Burchie, only bigger. It’s as shiny as
that, and it can go ’most as quick; but it’ll go the way Uncle Hank
wants it to.”
“It’ll go the way I want it to,” said Burch solemnly, watching the
darting brightness. “I’ll drive it—when we get it.” He nodded his
flaxen head toward the funny little green mound that stood in the
side yard, matted with woodbine in the summer and wearing a peaked
cap of snow of winters. “I’ll drive right up on top of the mountain,
and down on the other side,” he announced.
Hilda surveyed the mound doubtfully; it was as sharp and definite as
an upturned cup.
“Oh, no, brother,” she demurred. Then as she saw protest in his
face, she hastened to modify, “Well, not right at first. You’d
upset, I’m afraid. Let’s just drive round on the level for a good
while; then, if Uncle Hank says you may, you can go over the
mountain.”
Day after day, for a whole week, their play was all concerned with
the new carriage. It was present, with a wonderful reality, down
behind the corral on sunny afternoons, out along the road from
school, and beside the _asequia_.
When the wonderful morning of the contest came at last, the ancient
crippled ambulance was, in Uncle Hank’s phrase, “toggled up,” a pair
of good ponies put to it, and the old man drove his household over
the eighteen miles of open plain to Dawn. Rose Marie—a creature of
infinite fineness, quick intuition, and warm, responsive sympathies,
a pal to share a jest or a triumph with, and one who could hold her
tongue till the stars fell, in short, the perfect friend, the
companion genial yet reticent, discreet without austerity—Rose Marie
sat between Hilda and Burchie. Ahead, Shorty, Jeff, Buster, Missou’,
old Snake Thompson, and the other Three Sorrows cowpunchers rode in
a brave squad, from which came the sounds of jingling spurs,
creaking saddles, and that deep, satisfying music of big bass
voices.
It was a customary caravan. Sometimes as Hilda rode on, she was a
Persian princess in her palanquin, with her retinue of slaves; or a
prisoner, torn from some stately and glittering home, her cruel
captors galloping beside, exchanging callous jest and laughter
across her delicious, silken-robed despair. Aunt Val, on the seat by
her, even Uncle Hank in front driving, never guessed what a world of
her own, splendid, terrifying, marvelous, the child was riding
through. Only Rose Marie might know.
But to-day all such imaginings were put aside for the more instant
matter of the new carriage. She neglected to make sounds of pursuit
or rescue out of the thudding hoofs of the led horses behind the
ambulance, where trotted Pardner, Shorty’s “gilt-edged cutting
pony,” and the sober buckskin-colored mount from the back of which
Uncle Hank purposed later to view the races and the contest. Though
Rose Marie displayed a new frock constructed from a veil of Miss
Valeria’s, the pressure of realities made it impossible for the doll
to impersonate anything but a lady of the present day, residing in
Lame Jones County, the Texas Panhandle.
Even The-Boy-On-The-Train—who almost always took an important part
in Hilda’s invisible dramas—when bidden to appear and bear Hilda
company, arrived in the character of a judge of the races, who, with
grace of manner indescribable, and in a large round voice,
announced, at the close of the contest, that the rider for the Three
Sorrows had so far outdistanced all the others, that the carriage
would have been his more than thrice over. “More than thrice.” Hilda
liked that phrase, and she repeated it several times, with
variations and additions. Absorbed thus, she was oblivious to the
natural and usual stages by which they arrived at Dawn and the fair
grounds, where, stepping abruptly from the world of fantasy, she
became just a little girl with eyes, ears, and thoughts for only one
item of all the gay show. The horses, the cattle, the patchwork
quilts, buttonholes, preserves, tidies, and hand-painted
pin-cushions got no attention from her. Uncle Hank, reading her
state of mind correctly, found a comfortable seat for Miss Val, and
then led Hilda and Burchie to where stood the special prize for the
roping contest.
With a good child’s outward docility, she listened, mute, to the
eager speculations as to who would probably win it. Of course nobody
knew yet that the carriage was Hilda’s very own. At any rate, the
civil thing was to let these idle remarks pass unchallenged; and now
the time was at hand when, Shorty having roped his steer, the Three
Sorrows group could openly take possession of their own.
Life went by with little flavor or meaning, while the many products
of nature, and of man’s and woman’s skill, were sampled, judged and
the awards made. It still crept on listless wing where Hilda sat
with Miss Val and Burchie in the grand stand; and the gentlemen rode
for the bullion-trimmed sombrero, which Scotty MacQueen won; and the
ladies rode for a resplendent cow-girl saddle, which fell to Miss
Jessie MacGregor. It made little better progress during the races,
and the bestowal of the purse and the cup, the giving of the various
first, second and third prizes. Yet it did pass. The moment did
arrive when one said, and truly, that the roping contest was the
only event now remaining.