REVOLT
"'TAKE two cupfuls of milk,'" read Johnnie, who was bent over his newest
possession, a paper-covered cookbook presented him only that morning by
his good friend overhead; "'three tablespoonfuls of sugar, one-half
saltspoonful of salt' (only, not havin' a saltspoon, I'll just put in a
pinch), 'one-half teaspoonful of vanilla' (and I wonder what vanilla is,
and maybe I better ask Mrs. Kukor, but if she hasn't got any, can I
leave vanilla out?), 'the yolks of three eggs'--" Here he stopped. "But
I haven't got any eggs!" he sighed. And once more began turning the
pages devoted to desserts.
This sudden interest in new dishes had nothing whatever to do with the
Merit Badge for Cooking. The fact was, he was about to make a pudding;
and the pudding was to be made solely for the purpose of pleasing the
palate of Mr. Tom Barber.
Johnnie had on his scout uniform. And it was remarkable what that
uniform always did for him in the matter of changing his feelings toward
the longshoreman. The big, old, ragged clothes on, the boy might be glad
to see Barber go for the day, and even harbor a little of his former
hate for him; but the scout clothes once donned, their very snugness
seemed to straighten out his thoughts as well as his spine, the former
being uplifted, so to speak, along with Johnnie's chin! Yes, even the
buttons of the khaki coat, each embossed with the design of the scout
badge, helped him to that state of mind which Cis described as "good
turny." Now as he scanned the pages of the cookbook, those two upper
bellows pockets of his beloved coat (his father's medal was in the left
one) heaved up and down proudfully at the mere thought of to-day's good
deed.
He began to chant another recipe: "'One pint of milk, three
tablespoonfuls of sugar, two heapin' tablespoonfuls of cornstarch'----"
Another halt. The cupboard boasted no cornstarch. Nor was there gelatine
in stock, with which to make a gay-colored, wobbly jelly. As for prune
souffle, he could make that easily enough. But--the longshoreman did not
want to lay eyes on another prune souffle before Washington's Birthday,
at least, and the natal anniversary of the Father of His Country was
still a long way off.
Apple fritters, then? But they took apples. And brown betty had the
boldness to demand molasses on top of apples!
He turned more pages.
Then he found his recipe. He knew that the moment his eye caught the
name--"poor man's pudding." He bustled about, washing some rice, then
making the fire. All the while he hummed softly. He was especially happy
these days, for only the week before he had been visited by his Uncle
Albert, looking a trifle changed after these five years, but still the
kindly, cheerful Uncle Albert of the old days in the rich man's garage.
He fell to talking aloud. "I got milk," he said, "and I got salt, and
sugar, and the rinds o' some oranges. They're dry, but if I scrape 'em
into the puddin', Mrs. Kukor says they'll make it taste fine! I'll give
Mister Barber a bowl t' eat it out of. My! how he'll smack!"
At this point, the wide, old boards of the floor gave a telltale snap.
It was behind him, and so loud that it shattered his vision of Big Tom
and the pudding bowl. Some one was in the room! Father Pat? Mrs. Kukor?
One-Eye?
He turned a smiling face.
What he saw made him even forget that he had on the beloved scout suit.
In the first shock, he wondered how they could have come up and in
without his hearing them; and, second, if he was just thinking one of
his thinks, and had himself lured these two familiar shapes into the
kitchen. For there, in arm's length of him, standing face to face,
were--Big Tom and Cis.
They were real. In the next breath, Johnnie knew it. No think of his
would show them to him looking as they now looked. For Barber's heavy,
dark countenance was working as he chewed on nothing ferociously; while
Cis--in all the past five years Johnnie had never before seen her face
as it was now. It was set and drawn, and a raging white, so that the
blue veins stood out in a clear pattern on her temples. Her hat hung
down grotesquely at one side of her head. Her hair was in wild disarray.
And her eyes! They were a blazing black!
What had happened?
"Let go of me!" Cis demanded, in a voice that was not hers at all.
Barber had hold of her arm. With a sudden twist she freed herself.
"Here!" Her stepfather seized her again, and jerked her to a place
beside him. "And none o' y'r loud talk, d' y' understand?"
"Yes, I understand!" she answered defiantly, yet without lowering her
voice. "But I don't care what you want! I'll speak the way I want to!
I'll yell--Ee-e-e----"
But even as she began the shriek, one of his great hands grasped the
whole lower half of her face, covering it, and stopping the cry.
The next moment she was gasping and struggling as she fought his hold.
She tried to pull backward. She dragged at his hand as she circled him.
It was a strange contest, so quiet, yet so fierce. It was not like
something that Johnnie was really seeing: it was like one of those
thinks of his--a terrible one. Bewildered, fascinated, paralyzed, he
watched, and the matches dropped, scattering, from his hands.
The contest was pitifully unequal. All at once the girl's strength gave
out. Her knees bent under her. She swayed toward Big Tom, and would have
fallen if he had not held her up--by that hand over her mouth as well as
by the grasp he had kept on her elbow. Now those huge, tonglike arms of
his caught her clear of the floor and half threw, half dropped, her upon
the kitchen chair.
"You set there!" commanded Barber.
Too spent for speech, but still determined not to obey him, Cis tried to
leave the chair, and drew herself partly up by grasping the table. But
she could not stand, and sank back. At one corner of her mouth showed a
trickle of blood, like a scarlet thread.
The sight of it brought Johnnie to her in an agony of concern. "Oh,
Cis!" he implored.
With one flail-like swing of a great arm, Barber swept the boy aside.
"Stay where y' are!" he said to Cis (he did not even look at Johnnie).
Then he crossed to the hall door, which was shut, and deliberately
bolted it. The clash between him and Cis had been so quiet that Grandpa
had not even been wakened. Now Barber went to the wheel chair, and
gently, slowly, began to trundle it toward the bedroom. "Time t' go t'
s'eep, Pa," he said coaxingly. "Yes, time for old man t' go
s'eepy-s'eepy." When the chair was across the sill, he closed the door
upon it.
Meanwhile, Johnnie had again moved nearer to Cis. Now was his chance to
get away in his uniform and change into his old clothes; to gather up
his old, big shirt and trousers from where they lay on the morris
chair, unbolt the door, and make for that flight of stairs leading up to
the roof. But--he did not even think of going, of leaving her when she
needed him so. He wanted to help her, to comfort. "Oh, Cis!" he
whispered again.
She seemed not to hear him, and she did not turn her burning eyes his
way. Breathing hard, and sobbing with anger under her breath, she stared
at Barber. Her lip was swelling. Her face was crimson from her fight.
Drops of perspiration glistened on her forehead.
Barber's underlip was thrust out as he came back to her. "Y' ain't got
the decency t' be quiet!" he charged, "in front o' that poor old man!"
Now she had breath to answer. She straightened in her chair, and met him
with a boldness odd when coming from her. "Grandpa isn't the only person
in this flat to be considered," she returned.
"Jus' the same"--Big Tom shook a finger in her face--"he's the _first_
one that's goin' t' be considered!"
"Johnnie and I have _our_ rights!" she cried.
As she spoke his name, Johnnie's heart leaped so that it choked
him--with gratitude, and love, and admiration.
"Never mind y'r rights!" the longshoreman counseled. "I begin t' see
through you! Y're a little sneak, that's what y' are! Look at the crazy
way y're actin', and I thought y' was a quiet girl! Y' been pretty cute
about hidin' what y're up to!"
"Hiding!" she answered, resentful. "What do I have to hide from _you_?
What I do is none of _your_ business! I'm not a relation of yours! and
I'm seventeen! And from now on----"
"Oh, drop that!" interrupted Barber. "Y' waste y'r breath!" Then with
another shake of the finger, "What I want t' know--and the truth, mind
y'!--is how long has this been goin' on?" He leaned on the table to
peer into her eyes.
Going on? Johnnie's look darted from one to the other. Had Cis been
staying away from the factory? Had she been taking some of her earnings
to see a moving-picture? or----
"I don't have to tell you!" Cis declared.
"I'm the man that feeds y'!" Barber reminded. "Jus' remember _that_!"
"You've taken my earnings," she returned. "You've taken every cent I've
ever got for my work! And don't you forget _that_!"
"Ev'ry girl brings home her wages," answered the longshoreman. "And
don't y' forgit that I fed y' many a year before y' was _able_ t'
work----"
"While my mother was living, she earned my food!" Cis cried. "And _I've_
worked, just as Johnnie has, ever since I was a baby!"
"Have y'? Bosh! Y' been a big expense t' me, that's what y' been, for
all these past ten years! And now, jus' when y're old enough t' begin
payin' me back a little, here y' go t' actin' up! Well, you was left in
my hands. I'm only stepfather to y'. All right. But I'm goin' t' see
that y' behave y'rself."
"You've got nothing to say about me!" she persisted.
"No? I'll show y'! But what I want t' know now is, how many times have
you met this dude at the noon hour?"
Then Johnnie understood what had happened.
"Ha-a-a-a!" Cis threw back her head with a taunting laugh. "Dude! So
he's a dude, is he? But I notice, _big_ as you are, that you didn't let
Mr. Perkins know you'd been watching us! You didn't come up to the bench
and speak to _him_! No! You waited till he was gone! You were only brave
enough to do your talking in front of a lot of girls! Ha-a-a-a!" Then
her anger mounting, "_You_ talk about sneaking! That's because _you've_
sneaked and followed us!"
"Y're too young t' have any whipper-snapper trailin' 'round with
y'--noons, 'r any other time," declared Barber.
"My mother married when she was seventeen!" retorted Cis.
"It'll be time enough for y' t' be thinkin' o' beaus when y're twenty,"
went on Big Tom, quietly.
She stood up. "You hate to see anybody happy, don't you?" she asked
scornfully. "You're afraid maybe Mr. Perkins will like me, and want me
to marry him, and give me a good home!"
"You can put that Perkins out o' y'r head," commanded the longshoreman.
"When y're old enough, o' course, y're goin' t' marry; but I plan t'
have y' marry a _man_."
"Mr. Perkins is a man," she answered, not cowed or frightened in the
least.
"Not _my_ notion o' a man," said Big Tom.
"I like him all the better for that!" she returned--an answer which
stung and angered him anew, for he caught her roughly once more and
hurled her back into her chair.
She stayed there for a moment, panting. Then, "I'm going to marry Mr.
Perkins," she told him. "To-morrow--_if I live_!"
"T'morrow!" He shouted the word. "What're y' _talkin'_ about? I'll
_kill_ y' first! I'll----"
"Oh, don't!" As Barber reached to seize Cis again, Johnnie dragged at
his sleeve.
But the longshoreman did not notice him. It was Cis who cried out to
Johnnie, still defying Big Tom. "Oh, let him do what he wants!" she
said. "Because he won't have a chance even to speak to me after to-day!
Let him! Let him!"
Barber shook her, and stepped back. "After t'-day," he told her, "y'll
work right here at home!"
"Home! _Home!_" She laughed wildly. "Do you call _this_ a home?"
"I'll see that y' behave y'rself!" he vowed.
"You'd better see that you behave _yourself_!" she retorted. "Because
Johnnie doesn't belong to you--you haven't any rights over him! And he's
gone once, and he'll go again--after I go! And I'm going the minute I
can stand on my feet! I've stayed here long enough! Then you can try it
alone for a change!"
"Oh, _can_ I?"
"I'll never do another thing for you!" she went on; "--in this flat or
out! No, not in all the rest of my life! Oh, I'm not like Johnnie! I
can't pretend it's beautiful when it's awful! and imagine good clothes,
and decent food, and have my friends driven away, and insulted! I won't
stand it! I know what's wrong! I see things the way they are! And I'm
not going to put up with them! No girl could bear what you ask me to
bear! This flat! My room! The way I have to work--at the factory, and
then here, too! And no butter! No fruit! And the mean snarling,
snarling, snarling! And never a cent for myself!"
It had all come pouring out, her voice high, almost hysterical. And if
it surprised Johnnie, who had never before seen Cis other than quiet and
gentle and sweet, modest, wistful and shrinking, it appalled Barber.
Those eyes of his bulged still more. His great mouth stood wide open.
Presently, he straightened and looked up and around. "Well, I guess I
see what's got t' be done," he remarked casually.
The strap--it was Johnnie's first thought; Barber was getting ready to
whip Cis! Never before had the boy seen her threatened, and the mere
idea was beyond his enduring. "Oh, Mister Barber!" he protested. "Oh,
what y' goin' t' do?"
For an answer, the longshoreman swung a big arm over his own head and
gave such a mighty pull at the clothesline that it came loose from its
fastening at either end.
"Cis! He'll kill y'!" cried the boy, suddenly terror-stricken.
Girls could be brave! Father Pat had said it, and Edith Cavell had
proved it. Cis was proving it, too! For now she rose once more, and
though she was trembling, it was only with anger, not with fear. "He can
kill me if he wants to!" she cried defiantly. "But he can't make me mind
him, and he can't make me stay in this flat!"
Then Johnnie knew what he must do: bear himself like the scout he was so
soon to be. Also, was he not the son of his father? And his father had
been braver than any scout. So he himself must be extra brave. He flung
himself against Barber, and clung to him, his arms wound round one
massive leg. "Oh, Mister Barber!" he entreated. "Don't hurt Cis! Lick
me! Lick me!"
But Barber could not be easily diverted from his plan. "You git out o'
my way!" he ordered fiercely. A heave of one big leg, and he slung the
boy to one side--without even turning to look at him as he fell. Then
again he turned to Cis.
"You keep your hands off of me!" she warned. "If you touch me, you'll be
sorry!--Oh, I hate you! I hate you! _I hate you!_"
Barber laughed. "So y' hate me, do y'?" he demanded. "And y' ain't goin'
t' stay one more night! Well, maybe y'll change y'r mind! Ha! ha! ha!
ha! ha!" Then suddenly his look hardened. With a grunt of rage, rope in
hand, he swooped down upon her.
"You brute! You brute!"
It was not till then that Johnnie understood what Big Tom meant to do.
Crying out to him, "Oh, y' mustn't! Y' mustn't!" he rushed across to
catch at the rope, and clung to it with all his might.
Barber caught him up, and once more he threw him--so that Johnnie struck
a wall, and lay for a moment, half stunned. Meanwhile, with his other
hand, the longshoreman thrust Cis down into her chair. Then growling as
he worked, he wound her in the rope as in the coils of a serpent, and
bound her, body, ankles, and arms, to the kitchen table.
Johnnie came crawling back, bruised, but scarcely knowing it; thinking
only of Cis, of saving her from pain and indignity. "No, Mister Barber!"
he pleaded. "Not Cis, Mister Barber! Please! It's all my fault! I
fetched Mister Perkins here! I did! So blame me!"
Barber straightened. He was breathing hard, but there was a satisfied
shine in his bloodshot eyes. "All right, Mister Johnnie," he answered.
His voice was almost playful, but still he did not look at the boy.
"It's y'r fault, is it? Well, I guess maybe it jus' about is! So y'
needn't t' worry! I'll attend t' y'--_no mistake_!"