"BETTER A DINNER OF HERBS"
The day in the Petty household began with bickerings. Sarah Petty
possessed all the nagging power of dropping water. Orrin fulfilled his
own surname in small meannesses. Tom was disobedient and disrespectful
to both parents. All three picked on Pearl.
Although they endeavored to show Cap'n Jonah the smooth side of their
natures--and even Tom remained polite to him--the visitor could not
fail to overhear many things that were not intended for his ears. Nor
was he to be deceived regarding the character of his relatives.
One thing amazed him. The single item in his audit of Tom's character
that placed that young man one degree above an idiot, was the
revelation the evening before of what seemed to be Tom's admiration for
Pearl. The lout had intimated that he desired Pearl for his own.
"And if he loves a gal like her, mebbe there's some good in the scamp,
after all," ruminated Cap'n Jonah.
But this day had not passed before the captain saw so many exhibitions
of meanness on Tom's part in relation to the pretty household drudge
that he began to wonder if his hearing had not played him false on the
previous evening when he had sat at his chamber window and overheard
the conversation between the two young folks.
When Sarah Petty broke out in scolding because of some real or fancied
mistake of Pearl's, Cap'n Jonah expected Tom in some way to express
sympathy with the girl, if he did not defend her. But the lout only
grinned, lit his pipe, and left the house.
Of course, her menfolk were well used to the vitriolic dripping from
Sarah Petty's tongue, and bearing this in silence was perhaps the only
logical way to get along with her. If Tom had a proper feeling for
Pearl, however, the captain did not see how the fellow could listen to
his mother's vituperations addressed to her innocent victim. The girl
deserved no such tongue-lashings as she received, the captain was quite
sure.
He saw Pearl stepping lightly about her tasks--at sink, at stove, at
ironing-board, or what-not--always brisk and ready, and either silent
or with a pleasant word. She made no reply when Mrs. Petty's ill-humor
dripped over like an overfull cup. But Cap'n Jonah missed the smile
from her sweet face.
The old mariner, as he expressed it, "kept out from under foot" as much
as possible. He found that every time he went up to his room, Sarah
Petty was right behind him with brush and pan, ostentatiously dusting
imaginary dirt from the stair carpet. If he opened his window blind to
see in his room, it was shut immediately, and with emphasis, when he
departed. Before this first day was over his niece began sadly to get
upon the captain's nerves.
"The Lord sartainly does temper the wind to the shorn lamb--and to the
man that ain't married," concluded Cap'n Jonah. "If I was Orrin Petty,
I calc'late, I'd purty nigh live in the barn and never come into the
house at all. Or I'd ship for a long v'y'ge."
His sympathy for Orrin could not be deep, however; for Orrin Petty
possessed ways fully as unpleasant as those of his wife. His
penuriousness and his suspicion were raised to the _nth_ power, and his
curiosity made him a pest.
"I calc'late you seen many a chance't to turn a dollar over in them
furrin' parts you was to, Cap'n Jonah," Orrin said. "Jest how did you
do it?"
"Wal, for the most part, I passed one dollar from one pants pocket to
the other. If I came out even I was lucky, most times. Speculatin'
ain't what it's cracked up to be. Most money that I ever got my hands
on to I airned by the sweat of my brow--yes, sir!"
"Tradin' in them furrin' countries I allus heard would fetch two or
three hundred per cent.," Orrin went on obstinately.
"Ye-as. You'll hear a good many fool idees if you stretch your ears
to ketch ev'ry sound. If it was so, there'd be more millionaires in
Chinese waters than they tell me there is in Pittsburgh."
He refused to be drawn like a badger from his hole, and Orrin showed
disappointment. He had the itch for making money, and any man who made
it (as he believed Uncle Jonah had) by using his wits, was an object of
keen envy to Orrin Petty.
Besides, in this case, Orrin had a personal reason for desiring to know
the particulars of Cap'n Jonah's fortune.
"Le's see, Cap'n Jonah, you made your final investments nearer home
than China, didn't you?" he asked as they smoked after dinner on the
side porch. "You never come clear across't the world and left your
investments in furrin parts, did you?"
"'Hem!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "No. As I might say, I didn't."
"Wal, now, what did you conclude was a good, safe investment? Sarah an'
me might have a little spare money some day, and I reckon the lead of a
successful man like you would be a good one to foller."
"No. I wouldn't want to advise no other man in a matter of
speculation," said Cap'n Jonah bruskly.
But Orrin was not to be put off. The more the old mariner tried to
evade, the more Orrin was convinced that Cap'n Jonah had "made his
pile" and did not want anybody to know the means he had fortunately set
upon to become wealthy.
In his own heart the penurious Orrin Petty knew that if he made a
successful turn in business he would be loath to tell anybody else how
he did it.
"Now, Cap'n Jonah," he urged with his wry grin and slyly twinkling eye,
"jest put a name to it. Jest name one thing that you put money into."
Cap'n Jonah looked at him steadily for a moment. His mahogany face was
very grim indeed.
"Ile," he croaked at last.
"'Ile'?" repeated Orrin, eagerly. "Not whalin'?"
"Ile stocks," explained Cap'n Jonah gruffly.
"Wha--what's them?" stammered Mr. Petty.
"Sheers in ile wells, or in the land where ile wells is supposed to be."
"Goshamighty! Do they git ile out'n the ground?" ejaculated Orrin. "I
thought they got it from whales, an' codfish livers, and castor beans."
"I don't understand much about it," said Cap'n Jonah glumly.
"But is them ile shares good things to put money in?"
Cap'n Jonah stared at him again under penthouse brows. At last he said:
"Wal--no. I couldn't recommend 'em. I wouldn't advise any man about any
speculation, as I said afore."
His pipe had gone out. Cap'n Jonah was not much of a smoker. He got up
and walked away from the disappointed Orrin. Cap'n Jonah's face was
very grim as he paced down the lane. Finally:
"Whatever! I was sore tempted--I sartainly was. If that scalawag has
got any money laid up--he and Sarah--I b'lieve I could saw off them ile
sheers on to him easy.
"And s'arve him right," pursued Cap'n Jonah. "The feller that sold 'em
to me was mighty glad to git rid of 'em, I don't dispute. I bit, and
bit good. And I'd rayther like to see Orrin Petty swaller hook, line,
and sinker same's I did, I vow!"
However that might be, curiosity and cupidity urged Orrin Petty to
ask a question of the Paulmouth Bank cashier that very afternoon when
he went to make a deposit in his own and Sarah's name. In a small way
Orrin was considered a good customer by the bank. He made frequent
deposits, and he never took a penny out.
"What are oil stocks worth, Mr. Petty?" repeated the cashier in reply
to a question on that point. "Why, some I might mention are to-day
quoted--provided you could buy them--at six hundred and seventy. That
is five hundred and seventy dollars above par."
"Goshamighty!" murmured the wonderstruck Orrin. "An' suppose that old
codger was foxy enough to buy 'em at a hundred? I bet he did!"
He did not hear the cashier's additional information: "And some of them
are not worth the paper they are printed on."
This day was not ended for Cap'n Jonah before he came to one conclusion
that would color his opinion of his relatives and his future
intercourse with them, whether he was rich or poor.
The laws of the Medes and the Persians were no more unbreakable than
certain housekeeping rules in Sarah Petty's house. Ironing day followed
wash day as surely as the day dawned. Since immediately after the early
breakfast Pearl had been standing at the ironing board in the hot
kitchen, save when the board must be put aside for the serving of the
dinner.
Midafternoon came, and the girl was still at the board, wielding the
heavy irons. Her pretty face was flushed, but there was a white line
about her mouth that Cap'n Jonah could see from his chair in the
shaded porch. Her hair clung in damp clusters of curls about her brow.
There was a strained expression in her dark eyes, and they were deep,
smoldering pools of flame. The girl was overtired and her nerves were
almost at the breaking point.
No offer did Sarah Petty make to help her little drudge. She puttered
about certain light household duties and superintended the boiling
of the pork and cabbage for dinner. But she did not lift her hand to
lighten Pearl's task.
Her tongue was seldom still in fault-finding. There are housekeepers
_and_ housekeepers. Sarah Petty was one of the other kind! Nobody could
be clean enough, or exact enough, to suit her. Every piece she saw
Pearl iron could be done better; nor was her uncomplaining serving maid
that paragon which Sarah considered she should be.
As the mounds of smoothly ironed bed and table linen, with windrows
of towels and piles of garments, rose, Sarah's voice rose likewise in
snarling criticism.
There was no chair in the kitchen that was not occupied by the smoothed
pieces. Tom Petty lumbered in to fill and light his pipe and grinned
knowingly at Pearl.
"Ain't you got through yet, Pearly? By hokey! but you're takin' your
time about a little old mess o' clothes."
Pearl would not reply to this attempted pleasantry.
"What's the matter--mad?" asked the jovial Tenn, pointing a tentative
finger to lift Pearl's drooping chin. "You ain't mad with me, are you,
Pearly?"
"You get away from me, Tom Petty!" gasped the girl, starting back, the
heavy iron poised in her hand.
"By hokey! I believe you'd swipe me one with that iron!" crowed the
lout, in much apparent fear.
In retreating he fell against a chair. The neatly piled pillow slips
upon it toppled to the floor. His mother entered the kitchen just in
season to spy this disaster.
"There! You plagued, good-for-nothin', useless gal!" she shrieked.
"Them pillow slips all over the floor 'count o' your foolin' with Tom.
He can't come into the house but you haf to leave your work to have
some game with him. I could box your ears!"
Tom ran laughing out of the kitchen. He made no effort to defend Pearl
from his mother's undeserved wrath.
"Now, Miss!" Sarah Petty continued, scrambling the overturned linen up
anyway, some slightly soiled from contact with Tom's muddy boots, but
all ruffled and wrinkled. "Now, Miss! You can just have the pleasure of
washin' an' ironin' them over again. You wash 'em to-night after supper
an' hang 'em out; and if they ain't ironed and in the linen closet by
to-morrow noon, you'll hear from me, you lazybones!"
She went away, grumbling, with a pile of ironed clothes. Cap'n Jonah
heard Pearl sigh, then sob, then sigh again. The girl's spirit was
broken. The old mariner drew forth his never-failing comforter--the
silver snuff-box. He rapped it with his knuckle, snapped open the
cover, and took a huge pinch.
"Achoo!" he rasped, then muttered: "That Bible feller got it right:
Better a dinner of herbs and a little peace. Whatever! a person might's
well live with a live tagger as with Sarah Petty."