"SETTIN' ON THE LOG"
His face invited me, the skin drawn over it rather tightly, resembling
a death's-head, yet beaming with immortal joy.
He was sitting on a log; his little granddaughter, on the other side of
him, was as cheerfully diverted in falling off of it. He was picking
his teeth with some mysterious talisman of a bone, selected from the
forepaw of a deer, and gazing at the heavens as at a fond familiar
brother.
"Won't you set down a spa-ll," he said, and the way he said spell
suggested pleasing epochs of rest.
"Leezur's my name; and neow I'll tell ye how ye can all'as remember it;
it's jest like all them great discoveries, it's dreadful easy when it's
once been thought on. Leezur--leezure--see? Leezure means takin'
things moderate, ye know, kind o' settin' areound in the shank o' the
evenin'--Leezur--lee-zure--see!"
Oh, how he beamed! The systems of Newton and Copernicus seemed dwarfed
in comparison. I sat down on the log; the little girl, gazing at me in
astonishment, fell off.
"What's the marter, Dilly?" said her grandfather, in the same slow,
mellow, jubilant tone with which he had propounded his discovery, and
not withdrawing his fond smile from the heavens; "'s the log tew
reoundin' for ye to set stiddy on?"
A rattling brown structure rose before us, surrounded by a somewhat
firm staging; a skeleton roof, with a few shingles in one corner,
twisted all ways by the wind. It told its own tale, of an interrupted
vocation.
"I expect to git afoul of her agin to-morrer," continued Captain
Leezur; "ef Pharo got my nails when he went up to the Point to-day.
Some neow 's all'as dreadful oneasy when they gits to shinglin'; wants
to drive the last shingle deown 'fore the first one's weather-shaped.
Have ye ever noticed how some 's all'as shiftin' a chaw o' tobakker?
Neow when I takes a chaw I wants ter let her lay off one side, and
compeound with her own feelin's when she gits ready to melt away.
Forced-to-go never gits far, ye know.
"Some 's that way," he resumed; "and some 's sarssy."
I looked up incredulously, but his fostering, abstracted smile was as
serene as ever.
"Vesty, neow, stood down there in the lane this mornin', and sarssed me
for a good ten minits; sarssed me abeout not havin' no nails, and
sarssed me abeout settin' on the log a spall; stood there and sarssed
and charffed."
"She is some relative--some grandniece of yours, Captain Leezur?"
"No, oh no. Vesty and me 's only jest mates; but we charff and sarss
each other 'tell the ceows come home."
I thought of the tall girl with the holy eyelids and the brave
resistance against mirth, and in spite of my predilection for Captain
Leezur, his words seemed to me like sacrilege.
"I saw her, Sunday," I said.
"Wal, thar' neow! Vesty 's jest as pious lookin', Sundays, as Pharo's
tew-seated kerridge. I tell her, I'm dreadful glad for her sake that
there ain't but one Sunday tew a week, she couldn't hold out no longer.
Still, she's vary partickeler, Vesty is, and she 's good for taking
keer o' folks. Elder Birds'll says 't ef Vesty Kirtland ain't come
under 'tonin' grace, then 'tonin' grace is mighty skeerce to the Basin."
"She is beautiful," I said.
"Oh, I don't know 'beout that. Vesty 's a little more hullsome lookin'
sometimes 'long in the winter, when she gits bleached out and poored
away a bit."
"People seem to depend on her a great deal."
"Sartin they dew. Wal, Vesty 's gittin' on. She 's nineteen year old.
She can row a boat, or dew a washin', or help in a deliverunce case,
and she 's r'al handy and comfortin' in death-damps."
"All that! Vesty--and nineteen!" I think I sighed.
"Ye mustn't let her kile herself reound ye," said Captain Leezur.
I looked up in dismay. Had he not seen my weakness of body, and my
birth-scarred face?
No, apparently he had not; his benign blessed face uplifted, and his
voice so glad:
"Ye know how 'tis with women folks; they don't give no warnin', but
first ye know they're kilin' themselves all reound and reound yer
h'art-strings. They don't know what it 's for and ye don't know what
it 's for; but take a young man like you, and ef ye ain't keerful,
Vesty'll jest as sartin git in a kile on you as the world."
"How about that strong-looking young man?" I said. "Very easy,
swaggers gracefully--with the blue eyes."
"Neow I know jest who you mean! You mean Note Garrison. Sartin, Vesty
's done herself reound him from childhood to old age, as ye might say.
I don't know whether he c'd ever unkile himself or not, but I shouldn't
want to bet on no man's 'charnces with a woman like Vesty all weound
areound and reound him that way. Some says 't he wouldn't look at a
Basin when it comes to marryin'. But thar'! Note all'as kerries sail
enough ter sink the boat--but what he says, he'll stick to."
"He is rich, then?"
"Wal, yes. They own teown prop'ty somewhars, and they own all the Neck
here, and lays areound on her through the summer. Why, Note's
father--he 's dead neow--he and I uster stand deown on the mud flats
when we was boys, a-diggin' clarms tergether, barefoot; 'tell he
cruised off somewhar's and made his fortin'.
"I might 'a' done jest the same thing," reflected Captain Leezur aloud,
with a pensiveness that still had nothing of unavailing regret in it,
"ef I'd been a mind tew; and had a monniment put up over _me_ like one
o' these here No. 10 Mornin' Glory coal stoves."