TESS AND FREDERICK
Tessibel left Waldstricker with but one idea buzzing in her active
brain; to reach Daddy Skinner--to tell him all that had just happened.
She fled around the mud cellar and opened the door with swift-coming
breath. When she entered the kitchen, her father was seated on her cot.
He raised his eyes and greeted her.
"Daddy," panted the girl, closing the door, "I jest seen Waldstricker
an' he air a comin' down here tomorrow. I don't know what he wants, but
Andy mustn't come out of the garret, not fer anythin'. An', Daddy!" She
paused with a sudden sob, "He says he air a goin' to root Mother Moll
off'n her place. But don't let 'im turn us out of our shanty, will ye,
Daddy?"
"Nope," answered Skinner, grimly. "I ain't held it all these years to
let it go now fer a duffer like him."
"An', Daddy dear," blurted Tess, "Mother Moll told old Waldstricker's
fortune out of the pot, an' she says as how he ain't never goin' to git
Andy back to Auburn till it air too late, even if he uses up all the
money he air got. What d'ye think o' that?"
A little groan came from the garret. It no sooner fell on Tessibel's
ears than she scurried, nimble-footed, up the ladder. Poking her head
through the hole in the ceiling, she peered around. It was very dark,
and even straining her eyes, she could see nothing.
"Andy!" she whispered. "Andy, dear!"
"I air here, kid," murmured the dwarf from a dark corner.
"Don't be worrin'," encouraged Tess, softly. "I air begun to love ye,
Andy, an' you bet nobody durst touch ye. Whatever ye hear, be mum. Daddy
and me'll take care of ye, an' God will too."
Later she left the shanty in deep thought, and by the time she had
wended her way to the ragged rocks to meet Frederick Graves, she had
uttered many tense little prayers for the suffering dwarf in her attic.
These rocks were a bower of delight to the sentimental girl. It was here
in the gloom that in every expression of nature Tess heard Frederick's
voice; his clear tones came swiftly on the wings of the wind, in the
sonorous clap of the chimes as they spread their chant over the lake.
She was now seated on a broad, grey rock-slab, bending slightly forward,
listening for her lover's step.
"Frederick!" she breathed in delight as a tall form loomed from the
shadowy path.
In another moment she felt herself gathered into strong arms, and for a
while the boy and girl were silent in their mutual happiness. The
lakeside was quiet except for the sound of the tumbling waves and the
intermittent rumble of a train on the tracks above.
Now and then, far back in the forest, an owl whoo-whooed in croaking
tones, and in a nearby tree a family of baby birds twittered
continuously in their sleep.
All the daisies in the meadows, all the nodding buttercups in the
fields, seemed to be blossoming in Tessibel's heart at one time. She was
in Frederick's arms, and the whole world could offer her nothing more.
"Tessibel, my little love," began Frederick, between caresses, "you
remember what I begged you to consent to early in the spring?"
Tess made a movement to sit up.
"Ye mean--?" she stammered, confused.
Frederick drew her close.
"I want you to marry me right away," he murmured, entreatingly.
The words were whispered in passionate sighing out of the darkness into
her ear. Tess drew back a little.
"Right away?" she repeated, gulping. "What do ye mean by right away,
darlin'?... Now?"
Again strong arms evidenced strong affection.
"Yes--now," answered Frederick, earnestly. "You must! You must!... I
can't be happy unless you do--Oh, Tessibel! Won't you, Tess?"
Never had anything thrilled her as his halting insistence.
"An' Daddy Skinner--air he to know?" she stammered, chokingly.
"No, no!"
"An'--yer mother?"
"Well, not--not quite yet, dear."
Two slender hands covered a scarlet face, and tears trickled between
tense fingers.
"Then I can't!" Tess caught her breath in a sob. "I jest can't! Oh, why
couldn't Daddy know--an' yer mother, too?"
Frederick strained her against his breast.
"Because they can't--not yet," he whispered. "Not a soul must know. Just
you and I, darling. It'll be all right, dear, and I need you more and
more--every day."
The deepening tones in his voice frightened, while they thrilled her.
She pressed him back to look into his eyes, but even through the growing
gloom she could see the blue-veined lids were closed.
"Frederick," she murmured, drawing her face backward. "Frederick, let me
tell ye somethin'. Everybody had ought to know when a girl gets married.
Oh, they ought to know, so they ought. Daddy Skinner an' yer mother,
too."
Then of a sudden she was attacked by a strange tugging in her own heart.
She tried to free herself from his arms, but her resistance only made
him the more determined to bend her to his wish. She had always been
submissive, and he'd worshiped her for her womanly acquiescence to his
will. Trembling fingers forced her face upward and hot lips sought and
found hers. She shivered under the strong masculine pressure.
"Now listen to me, my love," he continued between fierce kisses. "Come
with me tomorrow night, and we'll get married and--and--"
Tess was trying heroically to hold to the principle she knew was right,
even though her heart directed otherwise.
"Not less'n I tell Daddy," she breathed back.
Her low denial served only to lock Frederick's arms more tightly around
her.
"You've got to come and you mustn't tell him, either," he urged. "You
mustn't!"
Succeeding at last in releasing herself, Tessibel sighed. She wanted to
be firm with him, to impress lovingly upon him her reason for refusing
him; but when he reached forth and folded her again in his arms, that
fine firmness gave way. She burst into wild weeping, holding him close
as he held her, trying through broken sobs to tell him what was
burdening her heart.
"It air like this, dear," she wailed, dismally. "Oh, I want to marry ye
more'n anything, but I've never deceived Daddy a bit in all my life. I
never done nothin' less'n I told 'im, and, Oh, I want to tell him,
Frederick! I do want to tell 'im!"
Frederick hadn't anticipated this resistance on Tessibel's part.
"Tess," he said, almost angrily, "I wouldn't ask you to do anything
wrong." Then softening, he pleaded accusingly, "You don't love me well
enough to be my wife."
"It'd be wicked," whispered Tess, falteringly.
"It would be right!" cried Frederick, in quick contradiction. "Tess, you
will, you will!"
The red curls shook slowly a mute negation.
"I don't believe you love me at all," groaned Frederick. Then taking a
long breath, "You want me to be unhappy, I know you do."
She lay limply in his arms while through the sensitive, honest mind
raced all the objections against his desire. There were his powerful
friends--his college--his--
"Yer mother--don't want ye to marry me," she cried, suffering.
"I know it," returned Frederick, promptly. "Still a man can't _always_
please his mother. Why, darling, what kind of a world would this be if
mothers picked out their sons' wives? A poor place! I can tell you."
"But yer mother air awful good and loves ye just like Daddy loves me,"
argued Tessibel, "an' when ye don't do right, everything goes wrong. If
Daddy Skinner ain't to know--"
"Nor anybody else," cut in the boy, growing moody after his sharp
retort. "I won't have any one know about it. Tessibel, I want this more
than anything else in the world. I love you--I love you, and you love
me. Then why not? You do love me, don't you?"
"That air why--I do what--ye want me to, I s'pose."
And as the halting words fell from her lips, the student crushed her to
him.
"I want you, dear," he breathed warm in her ear, "and it won't have to
be a secret over a year, not much over a year, darling, and
I'll----I'll----Oh! You will, Tessibel? You will?"
"Frederick!" she acquiesced, weakly. "Oh, Frederick darlin'!"
And for some time after her sudden consent, they sat on the rocks close
in spirit--close in thrilling nearness. Perhaps twenty minutes later,
Tess drew from the boy's arms.
"Daddy air callin' me," she said, softly.
And she went back to the shanty with the words, "I'm goin' to be married
tomorrow," ringing in her heart.