Elspie come official, as an inmate o' the county house. Eb, he sort o'
crep' in town, like he crep' everywhere else. He introduced himself to
me through sellin' needles. He walked in on me an' a two-weeks ironin'
one mornin' with, 'Lemme present myself as Ebenezer Goodnight, sewin'
needles, knittin' needles, crochet hooks an' shuttles an' anything o'
that,' an' down he set an' never opened his mouth about his needles
again. Eb was real delicate, for an agent. He just talked all the time
about Friendship an' himself. 'The whol' blame' town's kin,' s'e; 'I
never see such a place. _Every_body's kin, only just me. Air you,' he
ask' me wistful, 'cousin' of 'em all, too?'
"'Mis' Sprague that's dead was connected up with me by marriage an' Mis'
Sykes is my mother's secunt cousin,' I owned up.'
"'That's it again,' s'e, sighin'. 'I'm the odd number, dum it,' he says
sorrowful.
"Well, an' he hed sort of an odd-number way about him, too. He went
along the street like he didn't belong. I donno if you know what I mean,
but he was always takin' in the tops o' buildin's an' lookin' at the
roads an' behavin' like he noticed--the way you don't when you live in a
town. Yes, Ebenezer Goodnight went around like he see things for the
first time. An' somehow he never could join in. When he walked up to a
flock o' men, he stood _side_ of 'em, an' not with 'em. An' he shook
hands sort o' loose an' temporary like he meant somethin' else. An' he
just couldn't bear not to agree with you. If he let out't the sky was
blue an' you said, No, pink, he'd work around till he'd dyed _his_ sky
pink, too. That man would agree to things he never heard of. Let Peleg
Bemus be tellin' one o' his eastern janitor adventures, an' Eb'd set an'
agree with him, past noddin' an' up to words, all about elevators an'
Ferris boats an' Eyetalians an' things he'd never laid look to. He
seemed to hev a spine made mostly o' molasses. An' sometimes I think
your spine's your soul.
"Eb hed been lonelyin' 'round the village a month or so when Sum
Merriman, that run the big rival business to the post-office store, an'
was fire chief besides, took him an' his peddler's pack into the dry
goods end--an' Eb was tickled. He went down first mornin' in his best
clo'es, a-wearin' both collar an' cuffs. But when somebody remarked on
the clo'es, he didn't hev backbone enough to keep on wearin' 'em--he
slimpsed right back to his peddler duds an' done his best to please. An'
he did please--he made a rill first-rate merchant clear up till June o'
the year. An' then Sum Merriman, his employer, he went to work an' died.
"Sum died a Tuesday, an', bein' it never rains but it pours, an' piles
peelin's on ashes, or whatever it is they say, it was the Tuesday that
the poorhouse burnt down--just like it knew the fire chief was gone. The
poorhouse use' to be across the track, beyond the cemetery an' quite
near my house. An' the night it burnt I was settin' on the side stoop
without anything over my head, just smellin' in the air, when I see a
little pinky look on the sky beyond the track. It wasn't moon-time, an'
they wa'n't nothin' to bonfire that time o' year, an' I set still,
pretendin' it was rose-bushes makin' a ladder an' buildin' a way of
escape by night. It was such a nice evenin' you couldn't imagine
anything rilly happenin' bad. But all at once I heard the fire-engine
bell poundin' away like all possessed--an' then runnin' feet, like when
they's an accident. I got to the gate just as somebody come rushin'
past, an' I piped up what was the matter. 'Poorhouse's afire,' s'e.
'Poorhouse,' s'I. 'My land!' An' I out the gate an' run alongside of
him, an' he sort o' slowed down for me, courteous.
"Then I noticed it was Eb Goodnight--lonelier'n ever now that his
employer hed died that day. I'd never see Eb hustle that much before,
an' the thought went through my head, kind o' wonderin', that he was
runnin' as if the fire was a real relation o' his an' he was sent for.
'Know anything else about it?' I ask' him, keepin' up. 'Not much,' s'e,
'but I guess it's got such a head-start the whol' thing'll go like a
shell.' An' when we got to the top o' the bank on the other side o' the
track, we see it was that way--the poorhouse'd got such a head-start
burnin' that nothin' could save it, though Timothy Toplady, that was
town marshal an' chairman o' the county board, an' Silas Sykes an'
Eppleby Holcomb, that was managers o' the poorhouse, an' some more, went
puffin' past us, yellin', 'Put it out--run fer water--why don't you do
suthin'?'--an' like that, most beside theirselves.
"'Them poor critturs,' says I, 'oh, my, them poor critturs in the
home'--for there must 'a' ben twenty o' the county charges all quartered
in the buildin'. An' when we come to the foot o' the poorhouse hill,
land, land, I never see such Bedlam.
"The fire had started so soon after dusk that the inmates was all up
yet. An' they was half of 'em huddled in a bunch by the side-yard stile
an' half of 'em runnin' 'round wild as anything. The whol' place looked
like when you hev a bad dream. It made me weak in my knees, an' I was
winded anyway with runnin', an' I stopped an' leant up against a tree,
an' Eb, he stopped too, takin' bearin's. An' there I was, plump against
Elspie, standin' holdin' her arms 'round the tree trunk an' shiverin'
some.
"'Elspie,' s'I, 'why, you poor child.'
"'No need to rub _that_ in,' s'she, tart. It's the one word the county
charges gets sensitive about--an' Eb, he seemed to sense that, an' he
ask' her, hasty, how the fire started. He called her 'Miss,' too, an' I
judged that 'Miss' was one o' them poultice words to her.
"'I donno,' s'she, 'but don't it look _cheerful_? The yard's all lit up
nice, like fer comp'ny,' she says, rill pleased.
"It sort o' uncovered my nerves to hear her so unconcerned. I never hed
understood her--none of us hed. She was from outside the state, but her
uncle, Job Ore, was on our county board an' he got her into our
poorhouse--like you can when you're in politics. Then he up an' died an'
went home to be buried, an' there she was on our hands. She wa'n't rill
crazy--we understood't she hadn't ben crazy at all up to the time her
mother died. Then she hadn't no one to go to an' she got queer, an' the
poorhouse uncle stepped in; an' when he died, he died in debt, so his
death wa'n't no use to her. She was thirty odd, but awful little an'
slim an' scairt-lookin', an' quite pretty, I allus thought; an' I never
see a thing wrong with her till she was so unconcerned about the fire.
"'Elspie,' s'I, stern, 'ain't you no feelin',' s'I, 'for the loss o' the
only home you've got to your back?'
"'Oh, I donno,' s'she, an' I could see her smilin' in that bright light,
'oh, I donno. It'll be some place to come to, afterwards. When I go out
walkin',' s'she, 'I ain't no place to head for. I sort o' circle 'round
an' come back. I ain't even a grave to visit,' s'she, 'an' it'll be kind
o' cosey to come up here on the hill an' set down by the ashes--like
they _belonged_.'
"I know I heard Eb Goodnight laugh, kind o' cracked an' enjoyable, an' I
took some shame to him for makin' fun o' the poor girl.
"'She's goin' clear out o' her head,' thinks I, 'an' you'd better get
her home with you, short off.' So I put my arm around her, persuadish,
an' I says: 'Elspie,' I says, 'you come on to my house now for a spell,'
I says. But Eb, he steps in, prompter'n I ever knew him--I'd never heard
him do a thing decisive an' sudden excep' sneeze, an' them he always
done his best to swallow. 'I'll take her to your house,' he says to me;
'you go on up there to them women. I won't be no use up there,' he says.
An' that was reasonable enough, on account o' Eb not bein' the decisive
kind, for fires an' such.
"So Eb he went off, takin' Elspie to my house, an' I went on up the
hill, where Timothy Toplady and Silas Sykes an' Eppleby was rushin'
round, wild an' sudden, herdin' the inmates here an' there, vague an'
energetic. I didn't do much better, an' I done worse too, because I
burned my left wrist, long an' deep. When I got home with it, Eb was
settin' on the front stoop with Elspie, an' when he heard about the
wrist, he come in an' done the lightin' up. An' Elspie, she fair
su'prised me.
"'Where do you keep your rags?' s'she, brisk.
"'In that flour chest I don't use,' I says, 'in the shed.'
"My land! she was back in a minute with a soft piece o' linen an' the
black oil off the clock shelf that I hadn't told her where it was, an'
she bound up my wrist like she'd created that burn an' understood it up
an' down.
"'Now you get into the bed,' she says, 'without workin' the rag off. I'm
all right,' s'she. 'I can lock up. I like hevin' it to do,' she told me.
"But Eb puts in, kind o' eager:--
"'Lemme lock up the shed--it's dark as a hat out there an' you might
sprain over your ankle,' he says awkward. An' so he done the lockin' up,
an' it come over me he liked hevin' that little householdy thing to do.
An' then he went off home--that is, to where he stopped an' hated it so.
"Well, the poorhouse burnt clear to the ground, an' the inmates hed to
be quartered 'round in Friendship anyhow that night, an' nex' day I
never see Friendship so upset. I never see the village roust itself so
sudden, either. Timothy an' the managers was up an' doin' before
breakfast next mornin', an' no wonder. Timothy Toplady, he had three old
women to his farm. Silas Sykes, he'd took in Foolish Henzie an' another
old man for his. An' Eppleby Holcomb, in his frenzy he'd took in _five_,
an' Mame was near a lunatic with havin' 'em to do for. An' all three men
bein' at the head o' the burned buildin', they danced 'round lively
makin' provision, an' they sent telegrams, wild an' reckless, without
countin' the words. An' before noon it was settled't the poorhouse in
Alice County, nearest us, should take in the inmates temporary. We was
eatin' dinner when Timothy an' Silas come in to tell Elspie. I wished
Eppleby had come to tell her. Eppleby does everything like he was
company, an' not like he owned it.
"Eb was hevin' dinner with us too. He'd been scallopin' in an' out o'
the house all the forenoon, an' I'd ask' him to set down an' hev a bite.
But when he done even that, he done it kind of alien. Peleg Bemus,
playin' his flute walkin' along the streets nights, like he does, seems
more a rill citizen than Eb use' to, eatin' his dinner. Elspie, she'd
got the whol' dinner--she was a rill good cook, an' that su'prised me as
much as her dressin' my wrist the night before. She'd pampered me
shameful all that mornin' too, an' I'd let her--when you've lived alone
so long, it's kind o' nice to hev a person fussin' here an' there, an'
Elspie seemed to love takin' care o' somebody. I declare, it seemed as
if she done some things for me just for the sake o' doin' 'em--she was
that kind. Timothy an' Silas wouldn't hev any dinner,--it was a boiled
piece, too,--bein' as dinners o' their own was gettin' cold. But they
set up against the edge o' the room so's we could be eatin' on.
"'Elspie,' says Timothy, 'you must be ready to go sharp seven o'clock
Friday mornin'.'
"'Go where?' says Elspie. She hed on a black-an'-white stripe o' mine,
an' her cheeks were some pink from standin' over the cook stove, an' she
looked rill pretty.
"Timothy, he hesitated. But,--
"'To the Alice County poorhouse,' says Silas, blunt. Silas Sykes is a
man that always says 'bloody' an' 'devil' an' 'coffin' right out instead
o' 'bandaged' an' 'the Evil One,' an' 'casket.'
"'Oh!' says Elspie. 'Oh, ...' an' sort o' sunk down an' covered her
mouth with her wrist an' looked at us over it.
"'The twenty o' you'll take the Dick Dasher,' says Timothy, then, 'an'
it'll be a nice train ride for ye,' he says, some like an undertaker
makin' small talk. But he see how Elspie took it, an' so he slid off the
subjec' an' turned to Eb.
"'Little too early to know who's goin' to take the Merriman store, ain't
it?' s'he, cheerful. Timothy ain't so everlastin' cheerful, either, but
he always hearties himself all over when he talks, like he was a bell or
a whistle an' he hed it to do.
"Eb, he dropped his knife on the floor.
"'Yes, yes,' he says flurried, 'yes, it is--' like he was rushin' to
cover an' a 'yes' to agree was his best protection.
"'Oh, well, it ain't so early either,' Silas cuts in, noddin' crafty.
"'No, no,' Eb agrees immediate, 'I donno's _'tis_ so very early, after
all.'
"'I'm thinkin' o' takin' the store over myself,' says Silas Sykes,
tippin' his head back an' rubbin' thoughtful under his whiskers. 'It'd
be a good idee to buy it in, an' no mistake,'
"'Yes,' says Eb, noddin', 'yes. Yes, so't would be.'
"'I donno's I'd do it, Silas, if I was you,' says Timothy, frownin'
judicial. 'Ain't you gettin' some stiff to take up with a new business?'
But Timothy is one o' them little pink men, an' you can't take his
frowns much to heart.
"'No,' says Eb, shakin' his head. 'No. No, I donno's I would take it
either, Mr. Sykes.'
"I was goin' to say somethin' about the wind blowin' now east, now west,
an' the human spine makin' a bad weathercock, but I held on, an' pretty
soon Timothy an' Silas went out.
"'Seven o'clock Friday A.M., now!' says Silas, playful, over his
shoulder to Elspie. But Elspie didn't answer. She was just sittin'
there, still an' quiet, an' she didn't eat another thing.
"That afternoon she slipped out o' the house somewheres. She didn't hev
a hat--what few things she did hev hed been burnt. She went off without
any hat an' stayed most all the afternoon. I didn't worry, though,
because I thought I knew where she'd gone. But I wouldn't 'a' asked
her,--I'd as soon slap anybody as quiz 'em,--an' besides I knew't
somebody'd tell me if I kep' still. Friendship'll tell you everything
you want to know, if you lay low long enough. An' sure as the world,
'bout five o'clock in come Mis' Postmaster Sykes, lookin' troubled.
Folks always looks that way when they come to interfere. Seems't she'd
just walked past the poorhouse ruins, an' she'd see Elspie settin' there
side of 'em, all alone--
"'--_singin'_,' says Mis' Sykes, impressive,--like the evil was in the
music,--'sittin' there singin', like she was all possessed. An' I come
up behind her an' plumped out at her to know _what_ she was a-doin'. An'
she says: "I'm makin' a call,"--just like that; "I'm makin' a call,"
s'she, smilin', an' not another word to be got out of her. '_An'_,' says
Mis' Sykes, 'let me tell you, I scud down that hill, _one goose
pimple_.'
"'Let her alone,' says I, philosophic. 'Leave her be.'
"But inside I ached like the toothache for the poor thing--for Elspie.
An' I says to her, when she come home:--
"'Elspie,' I says, 'why don't you go out 'round some an' see folks here
in the village? The minister's wife'd be rill glad to hev you come,' I
says.
"'Oh, I hate to hev 'em sit thinkin' about me in behind their eyes,'
s'she, ready.
"'What?' says I, blank.
"'It comes out through their eyes,' she says. 'They keep thinkin': Poor,
poor, poor Elspie. If they was somebody dead't I could go to see,' she
told me, smilin', 'I'd do that. A grave can't _poor_ you,' she told me,
'an' everybody that's company to you does.'
"'Well!' says I, an' couldn't, in logic, say no more.
"That evenin' Eb come in an' set down on the edge of a chair,
experimental, like he was testin' the cane.
"'Miss Cally,' s'e, when Elspie was out o' the room, 'you goin' t' let
_her_ go with them folks to the Alice County poorhouse?'
"I guess I dissembulated some under my eyelids--bein' I see t' Eb's mind
was givin' itself little lurches.
"'Well,' s'I, 'I don't see what that's wise I can do besides.'
"He mulled that rill thorough, seein' to the back o' one hand with the
other.
"'Would you take her to board an' me pay for her board?' s'e, like he'd
sneezed the _i_-dea an' couldn't help it comin'.
"'Goodness!' s'I, neutral.
"Eb sighed, like he'd got my refusal--Eb was one o' the kind that always
thinks, if it clouds up, 't the sun is down on 'em personally.
"'Oh,' s'I, bold an' swift, 'you great big ridiculous _man_!'
"An' I'm blest if he didn't agree to that.
"'I know I'm ridiculous,' s'he, noddin', sad. 'I know I'm that, Miss
Cally.'
"'Well, I didn't mean it that way,' s'I, reticent--an' said no more,
with the exception of what I'd rilly meant.
"'Why under the canopy,' I ask' him, for a hint, 'don't you take the Sum
Merriman store, an' run it, an' live on your feet? I ain't any patience
with a man,' s'I, 'that lives on his toes. Stomp some, why don't you,
an' buy that store?'
"An' his answer su'prised me.
"'I did ask Mis' Fire Chief fer the refusal of it,' he said. 'I ask' her
when I took my flowers to Sum, to-day--they was wild flowers I'd picked
myself,' he threw in, so's I wouldn't think spendthrift of him. 'An' I'm
to let her know this week, for sure.'
"'Glory, glory, glory,' s'I, under my breath--like I'd seen a rill live
soul, standin' far off on a hill somewheres, drawin' cuts to see whether
it should come an' belong to Eb, or whether it shouldn't.
XI
LONESOME.--II
"All that evenin' Eb an' Elspie an' I set by the cook stove, talkin',
an' they seemed to be plenty to talk about, an' the air in the room was
easy to get through with what you hed to say--it was that kind of an
evenin'. Eb was pretty quiet, though, excep' when he piped up to agree.
'Gettin' little too hot here, ain't it?' I know I said once; an' Eb see
right off he was roasted an' he spried 'round the draughts like mad. An'
a little bit afterwards I says, with malice the fourth thought: 'I can
feel my shoulders some chilly,' I says--an' he acted fair
chatterin'-toothed himself, an' went off headfirst for the woodpile. I
noticed that, an' laughed to myself, kind o' pityin'. But Elspie, she
never noticed. An' when it come time to lock up, I 'tended to my wrist
an' let them two do the lockin'. They seemed to like to--I could tell
that. An' Elspie, she let Eb out the front door herself, like they was
rill folks.
"Nex' day I was gettin' ready for Sum Merriman's funeral,--it was to be
at one o'clock,--when Elspie come in my room, sort o' shyin' up to me
gentle.
"'Miss Cally,' 's'she, 'do you think the mourners'd take it wrong if I's
to go to the funeral?'
"'Why, no, Elspie,' I says, su'prised; 'only what do you want to go
for?' I ask' her.
"'Oh, I donno,' s'she. 'I'd like to go an' I'd like to ride to the
graveyard. I've watched the funerals through the poorhouse fence. An'
I'd kind o' like to be one o' the followers, for once--all lookin'
friendly an' together so, in a line.'
"'Go with me then, child,' I says. An' she done so.
"Bein' summer, the funeral flowers was perfectly beautiful. They was a
rill hothouse box from the Proudfits; an' a anchor an' two crosses an' a
red geranium lantern; an' a fruit piece made o' straw flowers from the
other merchants; an' seven pillows, good-sized, an' with all different
wordin', an' so on. The mound at the side o' the grave was piled
knee-high, an' Mis' Fire Chief Merriman, I heard, said it seemed like
Sum was less dead than almost anybody 't'd died in Friendship, bein' the
grave kind o' spoke up, friendly, when you see the flowers. She went
home rill cheerful from the funeral an' was able to help get the supper
for the out-o'-town relations, a thing no widow ever thinks of, anyway
till the next day--though Sum was her second husband, so it was a little
different than most.
"Well, a few of us waited 'round the cemetery afterwards to fix the
flowers on the top o' the sod, an' Elspie, she waited with me--fussin'
quiet with one thing an' another. Eb, he waited too, standin' 'round.
An' when it come time for us women to lay the set pieces on, I see
Elspie an' Eb walkin' off toward the top o' the cemetery hill. It's a
pretty view from there, lookin' down the slope toward the Old Part,
where nobody remembered much who was buried, an' it's a rill popular
walk. I liked seein' 'em go 'long together--some way, lookin' at 'em,
Elspie so pretty an' Eb so kind o' gentle, you could 'a' thought they
_was_ rill folks, her sane an' him with a spine. I slipped off an' left
'em, the cemetery bein' so near my house, an' Eb walked home with her.
'Poor things,' I thought, 'if he _does_ go back to peddlin' an' she
_has_ to go to the Alice County poorhouse, I'll give 'em this funeral
afternoon for a bright spot, anyhow.'
"But I'd just about decided that Elspie wa'n't to go to Alice County. I
hadn't looked the _i_-dee in the face an' thought about it, very
financial. But I ain't sure you get your best lights when you do that.
I'd just sort o' decided on it out o' pure shame for the shabby trick o'
_not_ doin' so. I hadn't said anything about it to Timothy or Silas or
any o' the rest, because I didn't hev the strength to go through the
arguin' agony. When the Dick Dasher had pulled out without her, final, I
judged they'd be easier to manage. An' that evenin' I told Elspie--just
to sort o' clamp myself _to_ myself; an' I fair never see anybody so
happy as she was. It made me ashamed o' myself for not doin' different
everything I done.
"I was up early that Friday mornin', because I judged't when Elspie
wasn't to the train some o' them in charge'd come tearin' to my house to
find out why. I hadn't called Elspie, an' I s'posed she was asleep in
the other bedroom. I was washin' up my breakfast dishes quiet, so's not
to disturb her, when I heard somebody come on to the front stoop like
they'd been sent for.
"'There,' thinks I, 'just as I expected. It's one o' the managers.'
"But it wa'n't a manager. When I'd got to the front door, lo an' the
hold! there standin' on the steps, wild an' white, was the widow o' the
day before's funeral--Mis' Fire Chief Merriman, lookin' like the grave
_hed_ spoke up. She'd got up early to go alone to the cemetery, an', my
house bein' the nearest, she'd come rushin' back to me with her news.
"'Cally!' s'she, from almost before she laid eyes on me, 'Cally!
Somebody's stole every last one o' the flowers off'n Sum's grave. _An'_
the ribbins.'
"She was fair beside herself, bein' as the loss hed piled up on a long
sickness o' Sum's, an' a big doctor's bill consequent, an' she nervous
anyhow, an' a good deal o' the ribbin tyin' the stems was silk, both
sides.
"'I'll hev out the marshal,' s'she, wild. 'I'll send for Timothy. They
can't hev got far with 'em. I'll know,' s'she, defiant, 'whether they's
anything to the law or whether they ain't.'
"I hed her take some strong coffee from breakfast, an' I got her, after
some more fumin's an' fustin's, to walk back to the cemetery with me,
till we give a look around. I do as many quick-moved things as some, but
I allus try, _first_, to give a look around.
"'An' another thing,' s'I to her, as we set out, 'are you sure, Mis'
Fire Chief, that you got to the right grave? The first visit, so,' I
says, 'an' not bein' accustomed to bein' a widow, lately, an' all, you
might 'a' got mixed in the lots.'
"While she was disclaimin' this I looked up an' see, hangin' round the
road, was Eb. He seemed some sheepish when he see me, an' he said,
hasty, that he'd just got there, an' it come over me like a flash't he'd
come to see Elspie off. An' I marched a-past him without hardly a word.
"We wasn't mor'n out o' the house when we heard a shout, an' there come
Silas an' Timothy, tearin' along full tilt in the store delivery wagon,
wavin' their arms.
"'It's Elspie--Elspie!' they yelled, when they was in hearin'. 'She
ain't to the depot. She'll be left. Where is she?'
"I hadn't counted on their comin' before the train left, but I thought I
see my way clear. An' when they come up to us, I spoke to 'em, quiet.
"'She's in the house, asleep,' s'I, 'an' what's more, in that house
she's goin' to stay as long as she wants. But,' s'I, without waitin' for
'em to bu'st out, 'there's more important business than that afoot for
the marshal;' an' then I told 'em about Sum Merriman's flowers. 'An','
s'I, 'you'd better come an' see about that now--an' let Eppleby an' the
others take down the inmates, an' you go after 'em on the 8.05. It ain't
often,' s'I, crafty, 'that we get a thief in Friendship.'
"I hed Timothy Toplady there, an' he knew it. He's rill sensitive about
the small number o' arrests he's made in the village in his term. He
excited up about it in a minute.
"'Blisterin' Benson!' he says, 'ain't this what they call vandalism?
Look at it right here in our midst like a city!' says he, fierce--an'
showin' through some gleeful.
"'Why, sir,' says Silas Sykes, 'mebbe it's them human _goals_. Mebbe
they've dug Sum up,' he says, 'an mebbe--' But I hushed him up. Silas
Sykes always grabs on to his thoughts an' throws 'em out, dressed or
undressed. He ain't a bit o' reserve. Not a thought of his head that he
don't part with. If he had hands on his forehead, you could tell what
time he is--I think you could, anyway.