BEFORE THE DAWN
"I wonder if Fanny's sacrifice isn't enough to drive the evil thing out
of our lives and out of Green Valley forever. Seems as if everybody
ought to vote the saloon out now," said Grandma Wentworth to Cynthia's
son a couple of weeks later, when the whole town was celebrating
because Fanny Foster had sat up for the first time in her chair that
day.
After all, John didn't buy Fanny her chair. Seth Curtis wanted to do
it all himself but Green Valley wouldn't let him. It was a wonderful
chair. You could lower it to different heights and it was full of all
manner of attachments to make the invalid forget her helplessness. Of
course Fanny was still too weak to use these but she knew about them
and seemed pleased, even said she believed that when she got the hang
of it she could get about the house and yard and might even venture
into the streets in time.
And early in the morning of the day she was to get up Doc Philipps
drove up in his buggy with what seemed like a young garden tucked
inside it. Fanny's garden and borders had been sadly neglected during
her sickness. The doctor had had John clean the whole thing up and
then he came with his arms and buggy full of blossoming tulips,
hyacinths and every bloom that was in flower then and would bear
transplanting. And for hours he and John worked to make a little
fairyland for Fanny.
"My God, John, I couldn't mend her body--nobody could. But between us
we have got to mend her spirit." And the old doctor blew his nose hard
to hide the trembling of his chin.
But no chair, no amount of tulips and hyacinths, could make up to Fanny
the loss of her body. And Green Valley knew this. So Green Valley was
talking more seriously than ever of driving out from among them the
thing that was pushing Jim Tumley into a drunkard's grave, that was
estranging hitherto happy wives and husbands and maiming innocent men,
women and children. Little Billy was all right again but he was now a
timid youngster and inclined to be jumpy at sight of a smartly trotting
horse. Hank Lolly's leg was healed up but Doc said he would always
limp a bit. Seth and his wife had made up, of course, but neither of
them could ever efface from their hearts and memories the cruel scenes
that had marred their life this past year.
Seth no longer went near the saloon. He had paid dearly for his
stubbornness and would continue to pay to the end of his days. Billy
Evans had swung around and was fighting the saloon now with a grimness
that was terrible in one so easy-going and liberal as Billy.
But nothing seemingly could convert George Hoskins. And so long as
George Hoskins was against a measure its passage was a hopeless matter,
for men like George always have a host of followers.
George was a huge man whose mind worked slowly. When he first heard
the talk about the town going dry he laughed--and that was enough. No
one argued the matter with him for no one relished the thought of an
argument with George. And only the minister had dared to mention Jim
Tumley. In his big way George loved little Jim, but since his wife had
sickened George spent every spare minute in her sick room and so
witnessed none of the scenes that were rousing Green Valley folks into
open rebellion against the evil that enslaved them.
George belonged to the old school that declared that to mind one's own
business was the highest duty of man. No one in Green Valley, not even
Cynthia's son, could make the huge man understand that he in a sense
was little Jim's keeper; that since Jim could not save himself the
strong men of the community would have to do it for him. George
wondered at the seriousness with which the thing was discussed. He
treated it as a joke. And this attitude was doing more harm than if he
had been bitterly hostile to the idea.
The Civic League was counting the votes, wondering if Green Valley
could go dry over George Hoskins' head. But Grandma Wentworth was
hoping for one more miracle before election day.
"Something'll happen to swing George into line. We Green Valley people
have always done everything together. It would spoil things to have
one half the town fighting the other half. We must do this thing with
everybody's consent or it will do no good. So let's hope for a
miracle."
And then the whole thing was wiped out of everybody's mind by the death
of Mary Hoskins. It was over at last and nobody but the doctor knew
how hard the big man had fought for his wife's life. So nobody quite
guessed the bitterness of the big man's grief. But everybody had heard
that Mary's last words were a plea to have little Jim sing her to her
last sleep and resting-place. And George had promised that Jim would
sing.
Jim had been drinking so steadily of late that he was a wreck. People
wondered if he could sing. When they told him his sister was dead he
laughed miserably and said nothing. No one was surprised when the hour
for the funeral services arrived to find Jim missing. Messengers had
to be sent out. They searched the town but could find no trace of Jim.
For an hour Green Valley waited in that still home. Then the
undertaker from Elmwood whispered something to the crushed, terrified
giant who stood staring at the dead face of his wife like a soul in
torment.
Mary Hoskins left her home without the song George had promised her.
At the grave there was another, a more terrible wait.
"My God--wait! They'll find him. God, men--wait--wait! I can't bury
her, without Jim's song. I promised her--I tell you I promised--oh, my
God--it was the last thing she wanted--and I promised."
So Green Valley waited, with horror in its eyes and the bitterness of
death in its heart. As the minutes dragged women began to sob
hysterically, in nervous terror. Men looked at the yawning grave, the
waiting coffin, the low-dropping sun and mumbled strange prayers.
Through a mist of tears the waiting watchers saw Hank Lolly and Billy
Evans pass through the cemetery gate, dragging something between them.
It was something that laughed and sobbed and gibbered horribly. Hank
and Billy tried to hold the ghastly thing erect between them but it
slipped from their trembling hands and lay, a twitching heap, at the
head of the open grave.
That was Green Valley's darkest hour. And after that came the dawn.
The following week Green Valley men walked quietly to the polls and as
one man voted the horror out of their lives. The day after little Jim
went off to take the Keeley cure. And then for two long weeks Green
Valley was still with the stillness of exhaustion.
Spring deepened and brought with it all the old gladness and a new
sweet peace, a peace such as Green Valley had never known. Gardens
began to bloom again and streets rippled with the laughter of
neighboring men and women. Life swung back to normal. Only the hotel
stood silent, a still vacant-eyed reminder of past pain. Nobody
mentioned it. Every one tried to forget it. But so long as it stood
there, a specter within its heart, Green Valley could not forget. It
was said that Sam Ellis had put it up for sale. But who would buy the
huge place?
Then it was that Green Valley's three good little men came forward.
Joe Gans, the socialist barber, was spokesman. He presented a plan
that made Green Valley catch its breath.
Why--said the three good little men--could not Green Valley buy the
hotel for its own use? Why not remodel it, make a Community House of
it? Why not move Joshua Stillman's wonderful library out of the little
dark room into which it was packed and spread it out in a big sunny
place, with comfortable chairs and rockers and a couple of nice long
reading tables? Why not fix a place for the young people to dance in
and have their parties? Why not have a real assembly hall--a big
enough and proper place to hold political meetings and all indoor
celebrations? Why not have pool, billiards, a bowling alley? Why not
have a manual-training room for Hen Tomlins and his boys? Why not have
a sewing room and cooking for the girls?
Oh, it was a glorious plan and Green Valley listened as a child does to
a fairy tale. Of course it couldn't really be done, many people said,
but--oh, my--if it only could!
But the three good little men had no sooner explained their fairy dream
than things began to happen. Cynthia's son came forward with the first
payment on the property. Colonel Stratton, Joshua Stillman, Reverend
Campbell offered to take care of other payments. Jake Tuttle
telephoned in from his farm that he was in on it. The Civic League
offered to do all the cleaning, the furnishing, to give pictures,
curtains, potted plants. The church societies offered to make money
serving chicken dinners on the hotel veranda to motorists who, now that
Billy Evans had a garage, came spinning along thick as flies. Nan
Ainslee's father, besides contributing to the purchasing fund, offered
to provide the library furniture, the billiard and pool tables. Seth
Curtis and Billy Evans not only gave money but offered to do all the
hauling. That shamed the masons and carpenters into giving their
Saturday afternoons for repair work. And after them came the painters
and decorators, with Bernard Rollins at their head. So in the end
every soul in Green Valley gave something and so the dream came true,
as all dreams must when men and women get together and work
whole-heartedly for the common good.