Her father also nodded as in polite recognition of her wishes. Turning
to Cyrus, he inquired, "What are you going to live on? What is going to
be your business?"
"I'm going to be a discoverer, like Columbus."
"I am afraid there won't be much left to discover by the time you are
a man--not on this earth, at least. The big continents are already
discovered."
"But there will be new countries at the bottom of the sea, and under
the earth and on the moon, and such places."
"On _such_ places! Dear me, Cyrus, do you think of taking your wife to
the moon?"
"Yes, sir."
"But how will you be supporting Ruth all that time? A husband should be
earning money."
"Oh, that part'll be all right! I'm going to be a train robber."
"A train robber!"
"Yes, sir."
Mr. Heywood whistled softly and looked at his daughter. "Well--now--is
that a nice business, Ruth, for a model husband? Do you want to marry a
train robber?"
Ruth smiled and nodded. "Yes, I shall always like Cyrus and whatever he
does."
"But suppose Cyrus is imprisoned for life, or hanged, as often happens
to train robbers?"
Cyrus interrupted, and spoke contemptuously. "No, I shan't be that
kind! It's only the stupid ones that's caught!"
Mr. Heywood closed his eyes for a moment and appeared to be thinking it
over. "Of course, it's possible,--just possible, that you may change
your mind as you get older."
"No, sir. 'Cause a man gets lots of money that way and gets it quick
and easy. And there'll be jewelry, too. I shall give the jewelry to
Ruth."
"And I," said Ruth, "shall give lots of it to mother. Mother likes
jewelry."
"Yes," said Mr. Heywood, "most women do. But isn't stolen jewelry a
little----"
Again Cyrus interrupted. "But that won't be stolen jewelry. When you
steal anything you get it when the other feller isn't looking--kind of
sneakin'. I shall take it right before their faces."
"Yes, but you threaten to kill them if they resist. That's robbery,
isn't it?"
"Yes, sir, but robbery isn't like stealing. It's more--more--it's
braver."
"Braver? Possibly. And you really consider robbery an honorable
business?"
"Oh, yes."
"And I can help him," said Ruth; "we would work together."
Mr. Heywood looked from the cherubic lips of the groom into the clear
eyes of his superlatively conscientious little daughter and murmured:
"Yes, you would be of great assistance." Then, after a pause:
"Now, Cyrus, you and Ruth come to me twenty years hence and if we are
all alive and Ruth still wants you I have no doubt we can arrange a
wedding."
"Twenty years!" exclaimed Ruth. "Why, father, we shall all be dead!"
"Oh, no! I trust not."
"Or too old--too awful old!"
"No, indeed! You will be twenty-seven. Call it fourteen years, then you
will be only twenty-one."
"But," said Cyrus, "we may forget all about it in fourteen years."
"Then it will be no disappointment to you if you can't marry. But run
along now, children, I have no more time for you." He spoke with such
decision as he began reading the letter in his hand that the unmarried
couple turned about and slowly vanished.
When they passed out into the open air, a stranger might have thought,
from the manner in which Zac bounced with joy and lifted up his voice,
that Cyrus was emerging from the Valley of the Shadow of Death. As they
stood again on the porch, the corners of Ruth's mouth were drooping.
There were tears in her irresistible eyes. Cyrus laid his hands on her
shoulders.
"Now don't you feel bad, Ruthy. If you want to be married, we just
will."