Suitors
April was in the mountains. All the vast timbered slopes and tablelands
of the Cumberlands were one golden dapple, as yet differentiated by
darker greens and heavier shadows only where some group of pine or cedar
stood. April in the Cumberlands is the May or early June of New England.
Here March has the days of shine and shower; while to February belongs
the gusty turbulence usually attributed to March. Now sounded the calls
of the first whippoorwills in the dusk of evening; now the first
mocking-bird sang long before day, very sweetly and softly, and again
before moonrise; hours of sun he filled with bolder rejoicings,
condescending in his more antic humour to mimic the hens that began to
cackle around the barn. Every thicket by the water-courses blushed with
azaleas; all the banks were gay with wild violets.
Throughout March's changeful emotional season, night after night in those
restless vehement impassioned airs, the cedar tree talked ardently to
Judith. Through April's softer nights she wakened often to listen to it.
It went fondly over its first assurances. And the time of Creed
Bonbright's advent was near at hand now. Thought of it made light her
step as she went about her work.
"Don't you never marry a lazy man, Jude."
The wife of Jim Cal Turrentine halted on the doorstep, a coarse white cup
containing the coffee she had come to borrow poised in her hand as she
turned to harangue the girl in the kitchen.
"I ain't aimin' to wed no man. Huh, I say marry! I'm not studyin' about
marryin'," promptly responded Judith in the mountain girl's unfailing
formula; but she coloured high, and bent, pot-hooks in hand, to the great
hearth to shift the clumsy Dutch oven that contained her bread.
"That's what gals allers says," commented Iley Turrentine discontentedly.
"Huldy's forever singin' that tune. But let a good-lookin' feller come in
reach and I 'low any of you will change the note. Huldy's took her foot
in her hand and put out--left me with the whole wash to do, and Jim Cal
in the bed declarin' he's got a misery in his back. Don't you never wed a
lazy man."
"Whar's Huldy gone?" inquired Judith, sauntering to the door and looking
out on the glad beauty of the April morning with fond brooding eyes. The
grotesque bow-legged pot-hooks dangled idly in her fingers.
"Over to Nancy Cyard's to git her littlest spinnin' wheel--so she _said_.
I took notice that she had a need for that wheel as soon as ever she
hearn tell that Creed Bonbright was up from Hepzibah stayin' at the
Cyards's."
Had not Iley been so engrossed with her own grievances, the sudden heat
of the look Judith turned upon her must have enlightened her.
"Huldy knowed him right well when she was waitin' on table at Miz.
Huffaker's boarding-house down at Hepzibah," the woman went on. "I ain't
got no use for these here fellers that's around tendin' to the whole
world's business--they' own chil'en is mighty apt to go hongry. But thar,
what does a gal think of that by the side o' curly hair and soft-spoken
ways?"
For Judith Barrier at once all the light was gone out of the spring
morning. The bird in the Rose of Sharon bush that she had taken for a
thrush--why, the thing cawed like a crow. She could have struck her
visitor. And then, with an uncertain impulse of gratitude, she was glad
to be told anything about Creed, to be informed that others knew his hair
was yellow and curly.
"Gone?" sounded old Jephthah's deep tones from within, as Mrs. Jim Cal
made her reluctant way back to a sick husband and a house full of work
and babies. "Lord, to think of a woman havin' the keen tongue that Iley's
got, and her husband keepin' fat on it!"
"Uncle Jep," inquired Judith abruptly, "did you know Creed Bonbright was
at Nancy Card's--stayin' there, I mean?"
"No," returned the old man, seeing in this a chance to call at the cabin,
where, beneath the reception that might have been offered an interloper,
even a duller wit than his might have divined a secret cordial welcome.
"I reckon I better find time to step over that way an' ax is there
anything I can do to he'p 'em out."
"I wish 't you would," assented Judith so heartily that he turned and
regarded her with surprise. "An' ef you see Huldy over yon tell her she's
needed at home. Jim Cal's sick, and Iley can't no-way git along without
her."
"I reckon James Calhoun Turrentine ain't got nothin' worse 'n the old
complaint that sends a feller fishin' when the days gits warm," opined
Jim Cal's father. "I named that boy after the finest man that ever walked
God's green earth--an' then the fool had to go and git fat on me! To
think of me with a _fat_ son! I allers did hold that a fat woman was bad
enough, but a fat man ort p'intedly to be led out an' killed."
"Jude, whar's my knife," came the call from the window in a masculine
voice. "Pitch it out here, can't you?"
Judith took the pocket-knife from the mantel, and going to the window
tossed it to her cousin Wade Turrentine, who was shaping an axe helve at
the chip pile.
"Do you know whar Huldy's gone?" she inquired, setting her elbows on the
sill and staring down at the young fellow accusingly.
"Nope--an' don't care neither," said Wade, contentedly returning to his
whittling. He was expecting to marry Huldah Spiller, Iley's younger
sister, within a few months, and the reply was thus conventional.
"Well, you'd better care," urged Judith. "You better make her stay home
and behave herself. She's gone over to Nancy Card's taggin' after Creed
Bonbright. I wouldn't stand it ef I was you."
"I ain't standin'--I'm settin'," retorted Wade with rather feeble wit;
but the girl noted with satisfaction the quick, fierce spark of anger
that leaped to life in his clear hazel eyes, the instant stiffening of
his relaxed figure. Like a child playing with fire, she was ready to set
alight any materials that came within reach of her reckless fingers, so
only that she fancied her own ends might be served. Now she went uneasily
back to the hearthstone. Her uncle, noting that she appeared engrossed in
her baking, gave a surreptitious glance into the small ancient mirror
standing on the high mantel, made a half-furtive exchange of coats, and
prepared to depart.
Up at the crib Blatch Turrentine was loading corn, and Jim Cal came
creeping across from his own cabin whence Iley had ejected him. He stood
for a while, humped, hands in pockets, watching the other's strong body
spring lithely to its task. Finally he began in his plaintive,
ineffectual voice.
"Blatch, I take notice that you seem to be settin' up to Jude. Do ye
think hit's wise?"
The other grunted over a particularly heavy sack, swung it to the waggon
bed, straightened himself suddenly, and faced his questioner with a look
of dark anger.
"I'd like to see the feller that can git her away from me!" he growled.
"I wasn't a-meanin' that," said Jim Cal, patiently but uneasily shifting
from the right foot to the left. "I'll admit--an' I reckon everybody on
the place will say the same--that she's always give you mo' reason than
another to believe she'd have ye. Not but what that's Jude's way, an'
she's hilt out sech hopes to a-many. What pesters me is how you two would
make out, once you was wed. Jude's mighty pretty, but then again she's
got a tongue."
"Her farm hain't," chuckled Blatch, pulling a sack into place; "and I
'low Jude wouldn't have after her and me had been wed a short while."
"I don't know, Blatch," maintained the fleshy one, timid yet persisting.
"You're a great somebody for havin' yo' own way, an' Jude's mighty high
sperrity--why, you two would shorely fuss."
"Not more than once, we wouldn't," returned Blatch with a meaning laugh.
"The way to do with a woman like Jude is to give her a civil beatin' to
start out with and show her who's boss--wouldn't be no trouble after
that. Jude Barrier has got a good farm. She's the best worker of any gal
that I know, and I aim for to have her--an' this farm."
Within the house now Judith, her cheeks glowing crimson as she bent above
the heaped coals, was going with waxing resentment over the catalogue of
Huldah Spiller's personal characteristics. Her hair, huh! she was mighty
particular to call it "aurbu'n," but a body might as well say red when
they were namin' it, because red was what it was. If a man admired a
turkey egg he would be likely to see beauty in Huldah's complexion--some
folks might wear a sunbonnet to bed, and freckle they would! A vision of
the laughing black eyes and white flashing teeth that went with Huldah
Spiller's red ringlets and freckles, and made her little hatchet face
brilliant when she smiled or laughed, suddenly put Judith on foot and
running to the door.
"Uncle Jep," she called after the tall receding form, "_Oh_, Uncle Jep!"
He turned muttering, "I hope to goodness Jude ain't goin' to git the
hollerin' habit. There's Iley never lets Jim Cal git away from the house
without hollerin' after him as much as three times, and the thing he'd
like least to have knowed abroad is the thing she takes up with for the
last holler."
"Uncle Jep," came the clear hail from the doorway, "don't you fail to
find Huldy and send her straight home. Tell her Iley's nigh about give
out, and Jim Cal's down sick in the bed--hear me?"
He nodded and turned disgustedly. What earthly difference did it make
about Jim Cal and Huldah and Iley? Why should Judith suddenly care? And
then, being a philosopher and in his own manner an amateur of life, he
set to work to analyze her motives, and guessed obliquely at them.
The sight of his broad, retreating back evidently spurred Judith to fresh
effort. "Uncle Jep!" she screamed, cupping her hands about her red lips
to make the sound carry. "Ef you see Creed Bonbright tell him--howdy--for
me!"
The sound may not have carried to the old man's ears, but it reached a
younger pair. Blatch Turrentine was just crossing through the grassy yard
toward the "big road," and Broyles's mill over on Clear Fork, where his
load of corn would be ground to meal with which to feed that blockaded
still on the old Turrentine place which sometimes flung a delicate trail
of smoke out over the flank of the slope across the gulch. As he heard
Judith's bantering cry, Blatch pulled up his team with a muttered curse.
He looked down at her through narrowed eyes, jerking his mules savagely
and swearing at them in an undertone. He was a well-made fellow with a
certain slouching grace about him as he sat on his load of corn; but
there were evil promising bumps on either side of his jaws that spoke of
obstinacy, even of ferocity; and there was something menacing in his
surly passivity of attitude. He looked at the girl and his lip lifted
with a peculiar sidelong sneer.
"Holler a little louder an' Bonbright hisself'll hear ye," he commented
as he started up his team and rattled away down the steep, stony road.
Sunday brought its usual train of visitors. The Turrentine place was
within long walking distance of Brush Arbor church, and whenever there
was preaching they could count on a considerable overflow from that
direction. The Sunday after Creed Bonbright put in an appearance at Nancy
Card's, there was preaching at Brush Arbor, but Judith, nourishing what
secret hopes may be conjectured, refused to make any preparation for
attending service.
"An' ye think ye won't go to meeting this fine sunshiny Sabbath mornin',
Sister Barrier?" Elder Drane put the query, standing anxious and
carefully attired in his best before Judith on the doorstep of her home.
She shook her dark head, and looked past the Elder toward the distant
ranges.
"I jest p'intedly cain't git away this morning," she said carelessly.
The Elder combed his sandy whiskers with a thoughtful forefinger. Not
thus had Judith been wont to reply to him. Always before, if there had
been denial, there were too, reasons adduced, shy looks from the corners
of those dark eyes and tender inquiries as to the health of his
children.
"Is they--is they some particular reason that you cain't go this
morning?" the widower inquired cautiously.
There was, and that particular reason lay as far afield as the Edge and
Nancy Card's place, but Judith Barrier did not see fit to name it to this
one of her suitors, who had brought her perhaps more glory than any
other. She was impatient to be rid of him. Like her mother Earth, having
occupied her time for lo! these several years in the building of an ideal
from such unpromising materials as were then at hand, she was ready to
sweep those tentative makings--confessed failures now that she found the
type she really wanted--swiftly, ruthlessly to the limbo of oblivion.
Elihu Drane stood high among his neighbours; he was a man of some
education as well as comfortable means. His attention had been worth
retaining once; now she smiled at him with a vague, impersonal sweetness,
and repeated her statement that she couldn't go to church.
"I've got too much to do," she qualified finally. "Looks like the work in
this house never is finished. And there's chicken and dumplin's to cook
for dinner."
The Elder's pale blue eyes brightened. "Walk down to the gate with me,
won't you?" he said hopefully, "I've got somethin' to talk to you
about."
When they were out of earshot of the house, he began eagerly, "Sister
Barrier you're workin' yourse'f to death here, in the sweet days of your
youth. I did promise the last time that I never would beg you again to
wed me, but looks like I can't stand by and hold my peace. If you was to
trust yourse'f to me things would be different. I never did hold with a
woman killin' herse'f with hard work. My first and second had everything
that they could wish for, and I was good and ready to do more any time
they named what it was. I've got a crank churn. None of these old
back-breaking, up-and-down dashers for me. I hired a woman whenever my
wife said the word. I don't think either of mine ever killed a chicken or
cut a stick of firewood from the time they walked in the front door as a
bride till they was carried out of it in their coffins."
He stared eagerly into the downcast face beside him, but somewhere Judith
found strength to resist even these dazzling propositions.
"I ain't studyin' about gittin' wedded," she told him most untruthfully.
"Looks like I'm a mighty cold-hearted somebody, Elder Drane. I jest can't
fix it no way but to live here with my Uncle Jep and take care of him in
his old days. Oh, would you wait a minute?" as they reached the
horse-block and the Elder began to untie his mount with a discouraged
countenance. "Jest let me run back to the house--I won't keep you a
second. I got some little sugar cookies for Mart and Lucy."
Mart and Lucy were the Elder's children. He stood looking after her as
she ran lithely up the path, and wondered why she could love them so much
and him so little. She came back laughing and a bit out of breath.
"I expect we'll have company to-day," she told him comfortably. "We
always do when there's preaching at the church, and I 'low I'd better
stay home and see to the dinner."
The Elder had scarcely made his chastened adieux when the Lusk girls came
through the grove walking on either side of a young man.
The Lusk girls were Judith's nearest neighbours--if you excepted Huldah
Spiller at Jim Cal's cabin, and at the present Judith certainly was in
the mind to make an exception of her. The sisters were seldom seen apart;
narrow shouldered, short waisted, thin limbed young creatures, they were
even at seventeen bowing to a deprecating stoop. Their little faces were
alike, short-chinned with pink mouths inclined to be tremulous, the eyes
big, blue, and half-frightened in expression, and the drab hair drawn
away from the small foreheads so tightly that it looked almost grey. They
inevitably reminded one of a pair of blue and white night-moths, scarcely
fitted for a daylight world, and continually afraid of it.
"Cousin Lacey's over from the Far Cove," called Pendrilla before they
reached Judith. "Ain't it fine? Ef we-all can git up a play-party he says
he'll shore come ef we let him know in time."
The young fellow with them, their cousin Lacey Rountree, showed
sufficient resemblance to mark the family type, but his light eyes were
lit with reckless fires, and his short chin was carried with a defiant
tilt.
"What you foolin' along o' that old feller for, Judith?" he asked jerking
an irreverent thumb after the departing Elder.
"I wasn't fooling with him," returned Judith, her red lips demure, her
brown eyes laughing above them through their thick fringe of lashes.
"Elder Drane was consulting me about church matters--sech as children
like you have no call to meddle with."
Young Rountree smiled, "I'll bet he was!" picking up a stone and firing
it far into the blue in sheer exuberance of youthful joy. "Did he name
anything about a weddin' in church?"
"Elder Drane is a mighty fine man," asserted Judith, suddenly sober. "Any
gal might be glad to git him. But its my belief and opinion that his
heart is buried with his first--or his second," and she laughed out
suddenly at the unintentional humorous conclusion she had made.
"See here, Jude," the boy put it boldly as the four young people strolled
toward the house, "you're too pretty and sweet to be anybody's thirdly.
Next time old man Drane comes pesterin' round you, you tell him that
you're promised to me--hear?"
Again Judith laughed. It is impossible to talk seriously to a boy with
whom one has played hat-ball and prisoner's base, whose hair one has
pulled, and who has, in retort courteous, rolled one in the dust.
"I'm in earnest if I ever was in my life," asserted Lacey, taking it
quite as a matter of course that Cliantha and Pendrilla should be made
party to his courting.
And the two little old maids of seventeen looked with wondering
admiration at Judith's management of all this masculine attention--her
careless, discounting smile for their swaggering young cousin, her calm
acceptance of imposing Elder Drane's humble and persistent wooing.