The Crest of Eastbrooke
"Sow;--and look onward, upward,
Where the starry light appears,--
Where, in spite of coward's doubting,
Or your own heart's trembling fears,
You shall reap in joy the harvest
You have sown to-day in tears."
"Any objections to my beginning to break ground on the west eighty
to-day?" asked Laddie of father at breakfast Monday morning.
"I had thought we would commence on the east forty, when planning the
work."
"So had I," said Laddie. "But since I thought that, a very particular
reason has developed for my beginning to plow the west eighty at once,
and there is a charming little ditty I feel strongly impelled to
whistle every step of the way."
Father looked at him sharply, and so, I think, did all of us. And
because we loved him deeply, we saw that his face was a trifle pale for
him; his clear eyes troubled, in spite of his laughing way. He knew we
were studying him too, but he wouldn't have said anything that would
make us look and question if he had minded our doing it. That was
exactly like Laddie. He meant it when he said he hated a secret. He
said there was no place on earth for a man to look for sympathy and
love if he couldn't find it in his own family; and he never had been so
happy since I had been big enough to notice his moods as he had been
since all of us knew about the Princess. He didn't wait for father to
ask why he'd changed his mind about the place to begin.
"You see," he said, "a very charming friend of mine expressed herself
strongly last night about the degrading influence of farming,
especially that branch of agriculture which evolves itself in a furrow;
hence it is my none too happy work to plow the west eighty where she
can't look our way without seeing me; and I have got to whistle my
favourite 'toon' where she must stop her ears if she doesn't hear; and
then it will be my painful task, I fear, to endeavour to convince her
that I am still clean, decent, and not degraded."
"Oh Laddie!" cried mother.
"Abominable foolishness!" roared father like he does roar once in about
two years.
"Isn't it now?" asked Laddie sweetly. "I don't know what has got into
her head. She has seen me plowing fifty times since their land has
joined ours, and she never objected before."
"I can tell you blessed well!" said mother. "She didn't care two hoots
how much my son plowed, but it makes a difference when it comes to her
lover."
"Maw, you speak amazing reckless," said Laddie, "if I thought there was
anything in THAT feature of the case, I'd attempt a Highland fling on
the ridgepole of our barn."
"Be serious!" said father sternly. "This is no laughing matter."
"That's precisely why I am laughing," said Laddie. "Would it help me
any to sit down and weep? I trow not! I have thought most of the
silent watches--by the way they are far from silent in May--and as I
read my title clear, it's my job to plow the west eighty immejit."
Father tried to look stern, but he just had to laugh.
"All right then, plow it!" he said.
"What did she say?" asked mother.
"Phew!" Laddie threw up both hands. "She must have been bottled some
time on the subject. The ferment was a spill of considerable
magnitude. The flood rather overwhelmed me, because it was so
unexpected. I had been taking for granted that she accepted my
circumstances and surroundings as she did me. But no, kind friends,
far otherwise! She said last night, in the clearest English I ever
heard spoken impromptu, that I was a man suitable for her friend, but I
would have to change my occupation before I could be received on more
than a friendly footing."
"'On more than a friendly footing'?" repeated mother.
"You have her exact words," said Laddie. "Kindly pass the ham."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing! I am going to plow the answer. Please don't object to my
beginning this morning."
"You try yourself all winter to get as far as you have, and then upset
the bowl like this?" cried mother.
"Softly, mummy, softly!" said Laddie. "What am I to do? I've
definitely decided on my work. I see land and life, as you and father
taught me, in range and in perspective far more than you've got from
it. You had a first hand wrestle. The land I covet has been greatly
improved already. I can do what I choose with it, making no more
strenuous effort than plowing; and I am proud to say that I LOVE to
plow. I like my feet in the soil. I want my head in the spring air.
I can become almost tipsy on the odours that fill my nostrils. Music
evolved by the Almighty is plenty good enough for me. I'm proud of a
spanking big team, under the control of a touch or a word. I enjoy
farming, and I am going to be a farmer. Plowing is one of the most
pleasing parts of the job. Sowing the seed beats it a little, from an
artistic standpoint, either is preferable to haying, threshing, or corn
cutting: all are parts of my work, so I'm going to begin. Mother, I
hope you don't mind if I take your grays. I'll be very careful; but
the picture I present to my girl to-day is going to go hard with her at
best, so I'd like to make it level best."
He arose, went around and knelt beside mother. He took her, chair and
all, in his arms:
"Best of mothers! on my breast
Lean thy head, and sink to rest."
She quoted. Mother laughed.
"Mammy," he asked bending toward her, "am I clean?"
"You goose!" she said, putting her arms around him and holding him
tight.
"Gander love," said Laddie, turning up his face for a kiss. "Honest
mother, you have been through nigh unto forty years of it, tell me, can
a man be a farmer and keep neat enough not to be repulsive to a refined
woman?"
"Your father is the answer," said mother. "All of you know how
perfectly repulsive he is and always has been to me."
"'Repulsive,"' said father. "That's an ugly word!"
"There are a whole lot of unpleasant things that peep around corners
occasionally," said Laddie. "But whoever of you dear people it was
that showed Mr. Pryor the Crest of Eastbrooke, brought out this
particular dragon for me to slay."
"Tut, tut! Now what does that mean?" said father. "Have we had a
little exhibition of that especial brand of pride that goes before a
fall?"
"We have! and I take the tumble," said Laddie. "Watch me start! 'Jack
fell down and broke his crown.' Question--will 'Jill come tumbling
after?'"
My heart stopped and I was shaking in my bare feet, because I wore no
shoes to shake in. Oh my soul! No matter how Laddie jested I knew he
was almost killed; the harder he made fun, the worse he was hurt. I
opened my mouth to say I did it, I had to, but Leon began to talk.
"Well, I think she's smart!" he cried. "If she was going to give you
the mitten, why didn't she do it long ago?"
"She had to find out first whether there were a possibility of her
wanting to keep it," said Laddie.
"You're sure you are all signed, sealed, and delivered on this plowing
business, are you?" asked Leon.
"Dead sure!" said Laddie.
"All right, if you like it!" said Leon. "None for me after college!
But say, you can be a farmer and not plow, you know. You go trim the
trees, and work at cleaner, more gentlemanly jobs. I'll plow that
field. I'd just as soon as not. I plowed last year and you said I did
well, didn't you, father?"
"Yes, on the potato patch," said father. "A cornfield is a different
thing. I fear you are too light."
"Oh but that was a year ago!" cried Leon.
He pushed back his chair and went to father.
"Just feel my biceps now! Most like steel!" he boasted. "A fellow can
grow a lot in a year, and all the riding I've been doing, and all the
exercise I've had. Cert' I can plow that meadow."
"You're all right, shaver," said Laddie. "I'll not forget your offer;
but in this case it wouldn't help. Either the Princess takes her
medicine or I take mine. I'm going to live on land: I'm going to plow
in plain sight of the Pryor house this week, if I have to hire to Jacob
Hood to get the chance. May I plow, and may I take the grays, father?"
"Yes!" said father roundly.
"Then here goes!" said Laddie. "You needn't fret, mother. I'll not
overheat them. I must give a concert simultaneous with this plowing
performance, and I'm particular about the music, so I can't go too
fast. Also, I'll wrap the harness."
"Goodness knows I'm not thinking about the horses," said mother.
"No, but if they turned up next Sunday, wind-broken, and with nice
large patches of hair rubbed from their sides, you would be! If you
were me, would you whistle, or vocalize to start on?"
Mother burst right out crying and laid her face all tear-wet against
him. Laddie kissed her, and wiped away the tears, teased her, and soon
as he could he bolted from the east door; but I was closest, so I saw
plainly that his eyes were wet too. My soul and body! AND I HAD DONE
IT! I might as well get it over.
"I showed Mr. Pryor the trinket," I said.
"How did you come to do that?" asked father sternly.
"When he was talking with mother. He told her Laddie would be 'wasted'
farming----"
"Wasted?"
"That's what he said. Mother told him you had always farmed and you
were a 'power in this community.' She told him about what you did,
because you wanted to, and what you COULD do if you chose, about
holding office, you know, and that seemed to make him think heaps more
of you, so I thought it would be a good thing for him to know about the
Crusaders too, and I ran and got the crest. I THOUGHT it would
help----"
"And so it will," said mother. "They constantly make the best showing
they can, we might as well, too. The trouble is they got more than
they expected. They thought they could look down on us, and patronize
us, if they came near at all; when they found we were quite as well
educated as they, had as much land, could hold prominent offices if we
chose, and had the right to that bauble, they veered to the other
extreme. Now they seem to demand that we quit work----"
"Move to the city, 'sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam,'" suggested
father.
"Exactly!" said mother. "They'll have to find out we are running our
own business; but I'm sorry it fell to Laddie to show them. You could
have done it better. It will come out all right. The Princess is not
going to lose a man like Laddie on account of how he makes his money."
"Don't be too confident," said father. "With people of their stripe,
how much money a man can earn, and at what occupation, constitute the
whole of life."
She wasn't too confident. Yesterday she had been so happy she almost
flew. To-day she kept things going, and sang a lot, but nearly every
time you looked at her you could see her lips draw tight, a frown cross
her forehead, and her head shake. Pretty soon we heard a racket on the
road, so we went out. There was Laddie with the matched team of
carriage horses and a plow. Now, in dreadfully busy times, father let
Ned and Jo work a little, but not very much. They were not plow
horses; they were roadsters. They liked to prance, and bow their necks
and dance to the carriage. It shamed them to be hitched to a plow.
They drooped their heads and slunk along like dogs caught sucking eggs.
But they were a sight on the landscape. They were lean and slender and
yet round too, matched dapple gray on flank and side, with long
snow-white manes and tails. No wonder mother didn't want them to work.
Laddie had reached through the garden fence and hooked a bunch of red
tulips and yellow daffodils. The red was at Jo's ear, and the yellow
at Ned's, and they did look fine. So did he! Big, strong, clean, a
red flower in his floppy straw hat band; and after he drove through the
gate, he began a shrill, fifelike whistle you could have heard a half
mile:
"See the merry farmer boy, tramp the meadows through,
Swing his hoe in careless joy, while dashing off the dew.
Bobolink in maple high, trills a note of glee,
Farmer boy in gay reply now whistles cheerily."
The chorus was all whistle, and it was written for folks who could. It
went up until it almost split the echoes, and Laddie could easily sail
a measure above the notes. He did it too. As for me, I kept from
sight. For a week Laddie whistled and plowed. He wore that tune
threadbare, and got an almost continuous pucker on his lips. Leon said
if he didn't stop whistling, and sing more, the girls would think he
was doing a prunes and prisms stunt. So after that he sang the words,
and whistled the chorus. But he made no excuse to go, and he didn't
go, to Pryors'. When Sunday came, he went to Westchester to see
Elizabeth, and stayed until Monday morning. Not once that week did the
Princess ride past our house, or her father either. By noon Monday
Laddie was back in the field, and I had all I could bear. He was
neither whistling nor singing so much now, because he was away at the
south end, where he couldn't be seen or heard at Pryors'. He almost
scoured the skin from him, and he wore his gloves more carefully than
usual. If he soiled his clothing in the least, and it looked as if he
would make more than his share of work, he washed the extra pieces at
night.
Tuesday morning I hurried with all my might, and then I ran to the
field where he was. I climbed on the fence, sat there until he came
up, and then I gave him some cookies. He stopped the horses, climbed
beside me and ate them. Then he put his arms around me and hugged me
tight.
"Laddie, do you know I did it?" I wailed.
"Did you now?" said Laddie. "No, I didn't know for sure, but I had
suspicions. You always have had such a fondness for that particular
piece of tinware."
"But Laddie, it means so much!"
"Doesn't it?" said Laddie. "A few days ago no one could have convinced
me that it meant anything at all to me, or ever could. Just look at me
now!"
"Don't joke, Laddie! Something must be done."
"Well, ain't I doing it?" asked Laddie. "Look at all these acres and
acres of Jim-dandy plowing!"
"Don't!" I begged. "Why don't you go over there?"
"No use, Chicken," said Laddie. "You see her exact stipulation was
that I must CHANGE MY OCCUPATION before I came again."
"What does she want you to do?"
"Law, I think. Unfortunately, I showed her a letter from Jerry asking
me to enter his office this fall."
"Hadn't you better do it, Laddie?"
"How would you like to be shut in little, stuffy rooms, and set to
droning over books and papers every hour of the day, all your life, and
to spend the best of your brain and bodily strength straightening out
other men's quarrels?"
"Oh Laddie, you just couldn't!" I cried.
"Precisely!" said Laddie. "I just couldn't, and I just won't!"
"What can you do?"
"I might compromise on stock," he said. "I could follow the same
occupation as her father, and with better success. Neither he nor his
men get the best results from horses. They don't understand them,
especially the breeds they are attempting to handle. Most Arab
horsemen are tent dwellers. They travel from one oasis to another with
their stock. At night their herds are gathered around them as
children. As children they love them, pet them, feed them. Each is
named for a divinity, a planet or a famous ruler, and the understanding
between master and beast is perfect. Honestly, Little Sister, I think
you have got to believe in the God of Israel, in order to say the right
word to an Arabian horse; and I know you must believe in the God of
love. A beast of that breed, jerked, kicked, and scolded is a fine
horse ruined. If I owned half the stock Mr. Pryor has over there, I
could put it in such shape for market that I could get twice from it
what his men will."
"Are Thomas and James rough with the horses?"
"'Like master, like man,'" quoted Laddie. "They are! They are foolish
with the Kentucky strain, and fools with the Arab; and yet, that
combination beats the world. But I must get on with the P.C. job."
He slid from the fence, took a drink from his water jug, and pulled a
handful of grass for each horse. As he stood feeding them, I almost
fell from the top rail.
"Laddie!" I whispered. "Look! Mr. Pryor is halfway across the field
on Ranger."
"So?" said Laddie. "Now I wonder----"
"Shall I go?"
"No indeed!" said Laddie. "Stay right where you are. It can't be
anything of much importance."
At first it didn't seem to be. They talked about the weather, the
soil, the team. Laddie scooped a handful of black earth, and holding
it out, told Mr. Pryor all about how good it was, and why, and he
seemed interested. Then they talked about everything; until if he had
been Jacob Hood, he would have gone away. But just at the time when I
expected him to start, he looked at Laddie straight and hard.
"I missed you Sabbath evening," he said.
Then I looked at him. He had changed, some way. He seemed more human,
more like our folks, less cold and stern.
"I sincerely hope it was unanimous," said Laddie.
Mr. Pryor had to laugh.
"It was a majority, at any rate."
Laddie stared dazed. You see that was kind of a joke. An easy one,
because I caught it; but we were not accustomed to expecting a jest
from Mr. Pryor. Not one of us dreamed there was a joke between his hat
crown and his boot soles. Then Laddie laughed; but he sobered quickly.
"I'm mighty sorry if Mrs. Pryor missed me," he said. "I thought of
her. I have grown to be her devoted slave, and I hoped she liked me."
"You put it mildly," said Mr. Pryor. "Since you didn't come when she
expected you, we've had the worst time with her that we have had since
we reached this da--ah--er--um--this country."
"Could you make any suggestion?" asked Laddie.
"I could! I would suggest that you act like the sensible fellow I know
you to be, and come as usual, at your accustomed times."
"But I'm forbidden, man!" cried Laddie.
Ugh! Such awful things as Mr. Pryor said.
"Forbidden!" he cried. "Is a man's roof his own, or is it not? While
I live, I propose to be the head of my family. I invite you! I ask
you! Mrs. Pryor and I want you! What more is necessary?"
"TWO things," said Laddie, just as serenely. "That Miss Pryor wants
me, and that I want to come."
"D'ye mean to tell me that you DON'T want to come, eh? After the fight
you put up to force your way in!"
Laddie studied the sky, a whimsy smile on his lips.
"Now wasn't that a good fight?" he inquired. "I'm mighty proud of it!
But not now, or ever, do I wish to enter your house again, if Miss
Pryor doesn't want, and welcome me."
Then he went over, took Mr. Pryor's horse by the head, and began
working with its bridle. It didn't set right some way, and Mr. Pryor
had jerked, spurred, and mauled, until there was a big space tramped to
mortar. Laddie slid his fingers beneath the leather, eased it a
little, and ran his hands over the fretful creature's head. It just
stopped, stood still, pushed its nose under his arm, and pressed
against his side. Mr. Pryor arose in one stirrup, swung around and
alighted. He looped an arm through the bridle rein, and with both
hands gripped his whipstock.
"How the devil do you do it?" he asked, as if he were provoked.
"First, the bridle was uncomfortable; next, you surely know, Mr. Pryor,
that a man can transfer his mental state to his mount."
Laddie pointed to the churned up earth.
"THAT represents your mental state; THIS"--he slid his hand down the
neck of the horse--"portrays mine."
Mr. Pryor's face reddened, but Laddie was laughing so heartily he
joined in sort of sickly-like.
"Oh I doubt if you are so damnably calm!" he cried.
"I'm CALM enough, so far as that goes," said Laddie. "I'm not denying
that I've got about all the heartache I can conveniently carry."
"Do you mind telling me how far this affair has gone?"
"Wouldn't a right-minded man give the woman in the case the first
chance to answer that question? I greatly prefer that you ask Miss
Pryor."
If ever I felt sorry for any one, I did then for Mr. Pryor. He stood
there gripping the whip with both hands and he looked exactly as if the
May wind might break him into a thousand tiny pieces, and every one of
them would be glass.
"Um--er----" he said at last. "You're right, of course, but
unfortunately, Pamela and her mother did not agree with my motives, or
my course in coming to this country; and while there is no outward
demonstration er--um--other than Mrs. Pryor's seclusion; yet,
er--um!--I am forced to the belief that I'm NOT in their confidence."
"I see!" said Laddie. "And of course you love your daughter as any man
would love so beautiful a child, and when she is all he has----" I
thought the break was coming right there, but Mr. Pryor clenched his
whip and put it off; still, any one watching with half an eye could see
that it was only put off, and not for long at that,--"It has been my
idea, Mr. Pryor, that the proper course for me was to see if I could
earn any standing with your daughter. If I could, and she gave me
permission, then I intended coming to you the instant I knew how she
felt. But in such a case as this, I don't think I shall find the
slightest hesitation in telling you anything you want to know, that I
am able."
"You don't know how you stand with her?"
Laddie took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. His feet
were planted widely apart, and his face was sober enough for any
funeral now. At last he spoke.
"I've been trying to figure that out," he said slowly. "I believe the
situation is as open to you as it is to me. She was a desperately
lonely, homesick girl, when she caught my eye and heart; and I placed
myself on her horizon. In her case the women were slow in offering
friendship, because, on account of Mrs. Pryor's seclusion, none was
felt to be wanted; then Miss Pryor was different in dress and manner.
I found a way to let her see that I wanted to be friends, and she
accepted my friendship, and at the same time allowed it go only so far.
On a few rare occasions, I've met her alone, and we've talked out
various phases of life together; but most of our intercourse has taken
place in your home, and in your presence. You probably have seen her
meet and entertain her friends frequently. I should think you would be
more nearly able to gauge my standing with her than I am."
"You haven't told her that you love her?"
"Haven't I though?" cried Laddie. "Man alive! What do you think I'm
made of? Putty? Told her? I've told her a thousand times. I've said
it, and sung it and whistled it, and looked it, and lived it. I've
written it, and ridden it, and this week I've plowed it! Your daughter
knows as she knows nothing else, in all this world, that she has only
to give me one glance, one word, one gesture of invitation, to find me
before her six feet of the worst demoralized beefsteak a woman ever
undertook to handle. Told her? Ye Gods! I should say I've told her!"
If any of Pryors had been outdoors they certainly could have heard Mr.
Pryor. How he laughed! He shook until he tottered. Laddie took his
arm and led him to the fence. He lifted a broad top rail, pushed it
between two others across a corner and made a nice comfortable seat for
him. After a while Mr. Pryor wiped his eyes. Laddie stood watching
him with a slow grin on his face.
"And she hasn't given the signal you are waiting for?" he asked at last.
Laddie slowly shook his head.
"Nary the ghost of a signal!" he said. "Now we come to Sunday before
last. I only intimated, vaguely, that a hint of where I stood would be
a comfort--and played Jonah. The whale swallowed me at a gulp, and for
all my inches, never batted an eye. You see, a few days before I
showed her a letter from my brother Jerry, because I thought it might
interest her. There was something in it to which I had paid little or
no attention, about my going to the city and beginning work in his law
office; to cap that, evidently you had mentioned before her our prize
piece of family tinware. There was a culmination like a thunder clap
in a January sky. She said everything that was on her mind about a man
of my size and ability doing the work I am, and then she said I must
change my occupation before I came again."
"And for answer you've split the echoes with some shrill, abominable
air, and plowed, before her very eyes, for a week!"
Then Laddie laughed.
"Do you know," he said; "that's a good one on me! It never occurred to
me that she would not be familiar with that air, and understand its
application. Do you mean to crush me further by telling me that all my
perfectly lovely vocalizing and whistling was lost?"
"It was a dem irritating, challenging sort of thing," said Mr. Pryor.
"I listened to it by the hour, myself, trying to make out exactly what
it did mean. It seemed to combine defiance with pleading, and through
and over all ran a note of glee that was really quite charming."
"You have quoted a part of it, literally," said Laddie. "'A note of
glee'--the cry of a glad heart, at peace with all the world, busy with
congenial work."
"I shouldn't have thought you'd have been so particularly joyful."
"Oh, the joy was in the music," said Laddie. "That was a whistle to
keep up my courage. The joy was in the song, not in me! Last week was
black enough for me to satisfy the most exacting pessimist."
"I wish you might have seen the figure you cut! That fine team, flower
bedecked, and the continuous concert!"
"But I did!" cried Laddie. "We have mirrors. That song can't be
beaten. I know this team is all right, and I'm not dwarfed or
disfigured. That was the pageant of summer passing in review. It
represented the tilling of the soil; the sowing of seed, garnering to
come later. You buy corn and wheat, don't you? They are vastly
necessary. Much more so than the settling of quarrels that never
should have taken place. Do you think your daughter found the
spectacle at all moving?"
"Damn you, sir, what I should do, is to lay this whip across your
shoulders!" cried Mr. Pryor.
But if you will believe it, he was laughing again.
"I prefer that you don't," said Laddie, "or on Ranger either. See how
he likes being gentled."
Then he straightened and drew a deep breath.
"Mr. Pryor," he said, "as man to man, I have got this to say to
you--and you may use your own discretion about repeating it to your
daughter: I can offer her six feet of as sound manhood as you can find
on God's footstool. I never in my whole life have had enough impure
blood in my body to make even one tiny eruption on my skin. I never
have been ill a day in my life. I never have touched a woman save as I
lifted and cared for my mother, and hers, or my sisters. As to my
family and education she can judge for herself. I offer her the first
and only love of my heart. She objects to farming, because she says it
is dirty, offensive work. There are parts of it that are dirty. Thank
God, it only soils the body, and that can be washed. To delve and to
dive into, and to study and to brood over the bigger half of the law
business of any city is to steep your brain in, and smirch your soul
with, such dirt as I would die before I'd make an occupation of
touching. Will you kindly tell her that word for word, and that I
asked you to?"
Mr. Pryor was standing before I saw him rise. He said those awful
words again, but between them he cried: "You're right! It's the
truth! It's the eternal truth!"
"It IS the truth," said Laddie. "I've only to visit the offices, and
examine the business of those of my family living by law, to KNOW that
it's the truth. Of course there's another side! There are times when
there are great opportunities to do good; I recognize that. To some
these may seem to overbalance that to which I object. If they do, all
right. I am merely deciding for myself. Once and for all, for me it
is land. It is born in me to love it, to handle it easily, to get the
best results from stock. I am going to take the Merriweather place
adjoining ours on the west, and yours on the south. I intend to lease
it for ten years, with purchase privilege at the end, so that if I make
of it what I plan, my work will not be lost to me. I had thought to
fix up the place and begin farming. If Miss Pryor has any use whatever
for me, and prefers stock, that is all right with me. I'll go into the
same business she finds suitable for you. I can start in a small way
and develop. I can afford a maid for her from the beginning, but I
couldn't clothe her as she has been accustomed to being dressed, for
some time. I would do my best, however. I know what store my mother
sets by being well gowned. And as a husband, I can offer your daughter
as loving consideration as woman ever received at the hands of man.
Provided by some miracle I could win her consent, would you even
consider me, and such an arrangement?"
"Frankly sir," said Mr. Pryor, "I have reached the place where I would
be----" whenever you come to a long black line like that, it means that
he just roared a lot of words father never said, and never will--"glad
to! To tell the truth, the thing you choose to jestingly refer to as
'tinware'--I hope later to convince of the indelicacy of such
allusion--would place you in England on a social level above any we
ever occupied, or could hope to. Your education equals ours. You are
a physical specimen to be reckoned with, and I believe what you say of
yourself. There's something so clean and manly about you, it amounts
to confirmation. A woman should set her own valuation on that; and the
height of it should correspond with her knowledge of the world."
"Thank you!" said Laddie. "You are more than kind! more than generous!"
"As to the arrangements you could make for Pamela," said Mr. Pryor,
"she's all we have. Everything goes to her, ultimately. She has her
stipulated allowance now; whether in my house or yours, it would go
with her. Surely you wouldn't be so callous as to object to our giving
her anything that would please us!"
"Why should I?" asked Laddie. "That's only natural on your part. Your
child is your child; no matter where or what it is, you expect to
exercise a certain amount of loving care over it. My father and mother
constantly send things to their children absent from home, and they
take much pleasure in doing it. That is between you and your daughter,
of course. I shouldn't think of interfering. But in the meantime,
unless Miss Pryor has been converted to the beauties of plowing through
my continuous performance of over a week, I stand now exactly where I
did before, so far as she is concerned. If you and Mrs. Pryor have no
objection to me, if you feel that you could think of me, or find for me
any least part of a son's place in your hearts, I believe I should know
how to appreciate it, and how to go to work to make myself worthy of
it."
Mr. Pryor sat down so suddenly, the rail almost broke. I thought the
truth was, that he had heart trouble, himself. He stopped up, choked
on things, flopped around, and turned so white. I suppose he thought
it was womanish, and a sign of weakness, and so he didn't tell, but I
bet anything that he had it--bad!
"I'll try to make the little fool see!" he said.
"Gently, gently! You won't help me any in that mood," said Laddie.
"The chances are that Miss Pryor repeated what she heard from you long
ago, and what she knows you think and feel, unless you've changed
recently."
"That's the amount of it!" cried Mr. Pryor. "All my life I've had a
lot of beastly notions in my head about rank, and class, and here they
don't amount to a damn! There's no place for them. Things are
different. Your mother, a grand, good woman, opened my eyes to many
things recently, and I get her viewpoint--clearly, and I agree with
her, and with you, sir!--I agree with you!"
"I am more than glad," said Laddie. "You certainly make a friend at
court. Thank you very much!"
"And you will come----?"
"The instant Miss Pryor gives me the slightest sign that I am wanted,
and will be welcomed by her, I'll come like a Dakota blizzard! Flos
can hump herself on time for once."
"But you won't come until she does?"
"Man alive! I can't!" cried Laddie. "Your daughter said positively
exactly what she meant. It was unexpected and it hit me so hard I
didn't try to argue. I simply took her at her word, her very explicit
word."
"Fool!" cried Mr. Pryor. "The last thing on earth any woman ever wants
or expects is for a man to take her at her word."
"What?" cried Laddie.
"She had what she said in her mind of course, but what she wanted was
to be argued out of it! She wanted to be convinced!"
"I think not! She was entirely too convincing herself," said Laddie.
"It's my guess that she has thought matters over, and that her mind is
made up; but I would take it as a mighty big favour if you would put
that little piece of special pleading squarely up to her. Will you?"
"Yes," said Mr. Pryor, "I will. I'll keep cool and do my best, but I
am so unfortunate in my temper. I could manage slaves better than
women. This time I'll be calm, and reason things out with her, or I'll
blow out my brains."
"Don't you dare!" laughed Laddie. "You and I are going to get much
pleasure, comfort and profit from this world, now that we have come to
an understanding."
Mr. Pryor arose and held out his hand. Laddie grasped it tight, and
they stood there looking straight at each other, while a lark on the
fence post close by cried, "Spring o' ye-ar!" at them, over and over,
but they never paid the least attention.
"You see," said Mr. Pryor, "I've been thinking things over deeply,
deeply! ever since talking with your mother. I've cut myself off from
going back to England, by sacrificing much of my property in hasty
departure, if by any possibility I should ever want to return, and
there is none, not the slightest! There's no danger of any one
crossing the sea, and penetrating to this particular spot so far
inland; we won't be molested! And lately--lately, despite the rawness,
and the newness, there is something about the land that takes hold,
after all. I should dislike leaving now! I found in watching some
roots your mother gave me, that I wanted them to grow, that I very much
hoped they would develop, and beautify our place with flowers, as yours
is. I find myself watching them, watching them daily, and oftener, and
there seems to be a sort of home feeling creeping around my heart. I
wish Pamela would listen to reason! I wish she would marry you soon!
I wish there would be little children. Nothing else on earth would
come so close to comforting my wife, and me also. Nothing! Go ahead,
lad, plow away! I'll put your special pleading up to the girl."
He clasped Laddie's hand, mounted and rode back to the gate he had
entered when he came. Laddie sat on the rail, so I climbed down beside
him. He put his arm around me.
"Do I feel any better?" he asked dubiously.
"Of course you do!" I said stoutly. "You feel whole heaps, and stacks,
and piles better. You haven't got him to fight any more, or Mrs.
Pryor. It's now only to convince the Princess about how it's all right
to plow."
"Small matter, that!" said Laddie. "And easy! Just as simple and
easy!"
"Have you asked the Fairies to help you?"
"Aye, aye, sir," said Laddie. "Also the winds, the flowers, the birds
and the bees! I have asked everything on earth to help me except you,
Little Sister. I wonder if I have been making a mistake there?"
"Are you mad at me, Laddie?"
"'Cause for why?"
"About the old crest thing!"
"Forget it!" laughed Laddie. "I have. And anyway, in the long run, I
must be honest enough to admit that it may have helped. It seems to
have had its influence with Mr. Pryor, no doubt it worked the same on
Mrs. Pryor, and it may be that it was because she had so much more to
bank on than she ever expected, that the Princess felt emboldened to
make her demand. It may be, you can't tell! Anyway, it's very evident
that it did no real harm. And forget my jesting, Chicken. A man can't
always cry because there are tears in his heart. I think quite as much
of that crest as you do. In the sum of human events, it is a big
thing. No one admires a Crusader more than I. No one likes a good
fight better. No Crusader ever put up a stiffer battle than I have in
the past week while working in these fields. Every inch of them is
battlefield, every furrow a separate conflict. Gaze upon the scene of
my Waterloo! When June covers it with green, it will wave over the
resting place of my slain heart!"
"Oh Laddie!" I sobbed. "There you go again! How can you?"
"Whoo-pee!" cried Laddie. "That's the question! How can I? Got to,
Little Sister! There's no other way."
"No," I was forced to admit, "there isn't. What are we going to do
now?"
"Life-saver, we'll now go to dinner," said Laddie. "Nothing except the
partnership implied in 'we' sustains me now. YOU'LL FIND A WAY TO HELP
ME OUT, WON'T YOU, LITTLE SISTER?"
"OF COURSE I WILL!" I promised, without ever stopping a minute to think
what kind of a job that was going to be.
Did you ever wish with all your might that something would happen, and
wait for it, expect it, and long for it, and nothing did, until it grew
so bad, it seemed as if you had to go on another minute you couldn't
bear it? Now I thought when Mr. Pryor talked to her, maybe she'd send
for Laddie that very same night; but send nothing! She didn't even
ride on our road any more. Of course her father had made a botch of
it! Bet I could have told her Laddie's message straighter than he did.
I could think it over, and see exactly how he'd do. He'd talk nicely
about one minute, and the first word she said, that he didn't like,
he'd be ranting, and using unsuitable words. Just as like as not he
told her that he'd lay his whip across her shoulders, like he had
Laddie. Any one could see that as long as she was his daughter, she
might be slightly handy with whips herself; at least she wouldn't be
likely to stand still and tell him to go ahead and beat her.
Sunday Laddie went to Lucy's. He said he was having a family reunion
on the installment plan. Of course we laughed, but none of us missed
the long look he sent toward Pryors' as he mounted to start in the
opposite direction.
Everything went on. I didn't see how it could, but it did. It even
got worse, for another letter came from Shelley that made matters
concerning her no brighter, and while none of us talked about Laddie,
all of us knew mighty well how we felt; and what was much worse, how he
felt. Father and mother had quit worrying about God; especially
father. He seemed to think that God and Laddie could be trusted to
take care of the Princess, and I don't know exactly what mother
thought. No doubt she saw she couldn't help herself, and so she
decided it was useless to struggle.
The plowing on the west side was almost finished, and some of the seed
was in. Laddie went straight ahead flower-trimmed and whistling until
his face must have ached as badly as his heart. In spite of how hard
he tried to laugh, and keep going, all of us could see that he fairly
had to stick up his head and stretch his neck like the blue goose, to
make the bites go down. And you couldn't help seeing the roundness and
the colour go from his face, a little more every day. My! but being in
love, when you couldn't have the one you loved, was the worst of all.
I wore myself almost as thin as Laddie, hunting a Fairy to ask if she'd
help me to make the Princess let Laddie go on and plow, when he was so
crazy about it. I prayed beside my bed every night, until the Lord
must have grown so tired He quit listening to me, for I talked right up
as impressively as I knew how, and it didn't do the least bit of good.
I hadn't tried the one big prayer toward the east yet; but I was just
about to the place where I intended to do it soon.