When Hawker pushed at the old gate, it hesitated because of a broken
hinge. A dog barked with loud ferocity and came headlong over the grass.
"Hello, Stanley, old man!" cried Hawker. The ardour for battle was
instantly smitten from the dog, and his barking swallowed in a gurgle of
delight. He was a large orange and white setter, and he partly expressed
his emotion by twisting his body into a fantastic curve and then dancing
over the ground with his head and his tail very near to each other. He
gave vent to little sobs in a wild attempt to vocally describe his
gladness. "Well, 'e was a dreat dod," said Hawker, and the setter,
overwhelmed, contorted himself wonderfully.
There were lights in the kitchen, and at the first barking of the dog
the door had been thrown open. Hawker saw his two sisters shading their
eyes and peering down the yellow stream. Presently they shouted, "Here
he is!" They flung themselves out and upon him. "Why, Will! why, Will!"
they panted.
"We're awful glad to see you!" In a whirlwind of ejaculation and
unanswerable interrogation they grappled the clothes case, the
paint-box, the easel, and dragged him toward the house.
He saw his old mother seated in a rocking-chair by the table. She had
laid aside her paper and was adjusting her glasses as she scanned the
darkness. "Hello, mother!" cried Hawker, as he entered. His eyes were
bright. The old mother reached her arms to his neck. She murmured soft
and half-articulate words. Meanwhile the dog writhed from one to
another. He raised his muzzle high to express his delight. He was always
fully convinced that he was taking a principal part in this ceremony of
welcome and that everybody was heeding him.
"Have you had your supper?" asked the old mother as soon as she
recovered herself. The girls clamoured sentences at him. "Pa's out in
the barn, Will. What made you so late? He said maybe he'd go up to the
cross-roads to see if he could see the stage. Maybe he's gone. What
made you so late? And, oh, we got a new buggy!"
The old mother repeated anxiously, "Have you had your supper?"
"No," said Hawker, "but----"
The three women sprang to their feet. "Well, we'll git you something
right away." They bustled about the kitchen and dove from time to time
into the cellar. They called to each other in happy voices.
Steps sounded on the line of stones that led from the door toward the
barn, and a shout came from the darkness. "Well, William, home again,
hey?" Hawker's grey father came stamping genially into the room. "I
thought maybe you got lost. I was comin' to hunt you," he said,
grinning, as they stood with gripped hands. "What made you so late?"
While Hawker confronted the supper the family sat about and contemplated
him with shining eyes. His sisters noted his tie and propounded some
questions concerning it. His mother watched to make sure that he should
consume a notable quantity of the preserved cherries. "He used to be so
fond of 'em when he was little," she said.
"Oh, Will," cried the younger sister, "do you remember Lil' Johnson?
Yeh? She's married. Married las' June."
"Is the boy's room all ready, mother?" asked the father.
"We fixed it this mornin'," she said.
"And do you remember Jeff Decker?" shouted the elder sister. "Well, he's
dead. Yep. Drowned, pickerel fishin'--poor feller!"
"Well, how are you gitting along, William?" asked the father. "Sell many
pictures?"
"An occasional one."
"Saw your illustrations in the May number of Perkinson's." The old man
paused for a moment, and then added, quite weakly, "Pretty good."
"How's everything about the place?"
"Oh, just about the same--'bout the same. The colt run away with me last
week, but didn't break nothin', though. I was scared, because I had out
the new buggy--we got a new buggy--but it didn't break nothin'. I'm
goin' to sell the oxen in the fall; I don't want to winter 'em. And then
in the spring I'll get a good hoss team. I rented th' back five-acre to
John Westfall. I had more'n I could handle with only one hired hand.
Times is pickin' up a little, but not much--not much."
"And we got a new school-teacher," said one of the girls.
"Will, you never noticed my new rocker," said the old mother, pointing.
"I set it right where I thought you'd see it, and you never took no
notice. Ain't it nice? Father bought it at Monticello for my birthday. I
thought you'd notice it first thing."
When Hawker had retired for the night, he raised a sash and sat by the
window smoking. The odour of the woods and the fields came sweetly to
his nostrils. The crickets chanted their hymn of the night. On the black
brow of the mountain he could see two long rows of twinkling dots which
marked the position of Hemlock Inn.