INTERESTED IN HIM.
Milford took possession of the farm-cottage. The terms were so
loose-jointed that the neighbors lamented the old woman's lack of
business sense. She told them to keep still. She said that for years she
had been following the advice of a lawyer, and that every string of her
affairs had come untied. Now she was going to act for herself. It was
hinted that her methods would reflect discredit upon the practical sense
of the community. She replied that she paid her own taxes.
On the old farm there was a sprout of new life. At break of day the
dozing idler heard a song afield; the hired man, going to milk the cows,
the city man, snapping his watch, hastening to catch a train, saw the
Westerner working, wet with dew. And when the evening's lamps were
lighted, the wild notes of his cowboy song rang from the hillside.
Farmers going to the village of a Saturday afternoon stopped at his
fence to engage him in talk, but he answered their questions as he went
on with his work. One day they heard him say to his hired man: "Go to
the house, Mitchell, and rest a while. You are worn out." A man whose
table was light, whose shipments of veal and poultry to town were heavy,
and who had been requested to put a better quality of water into his
milk, declared that he had lived too long and had too much experience
of the world to be fooled by a man from the West. He had committed some
crime--murder, no doubt--and Steve Hardy was censured for hauling him
over from the station. This surmise reached the ears of Mrs. Stuvic. She
waited till she saw the wise man driving past her house, and she stopped
him in the road.
"I'm glad you know all about my man over there, Hawkins."
"Why, I don't know anything about him."
"Oh, yes, you said he'd committed murder."
"No, I said most likely; but I didn't want it repeated, for, of course,
I don't know."
"Yes, you bet! And there's a good many things you don't want repeated.
You don't want it repeated that you put old Lewson's brats up to turning
him out of the house."
"Look here, madam, I didn't do anything of the sort. I simply said I
didn't see how they could live with him; and I didn't, either."
"Well, it's all right. The old man's got a better home than he ever had;
and you needn't worry yourself about my man over yonder. He couldn't
sell as much milk from five cows as you can do, and I don't believe you
can keep it up unless we have rain pretty soon, but he knows how to
attend to his own business, and that's somethin' you've never been able
to learn."
"Madam, if you'll step from in front of my horses I'll drive on."
"Yes, and mighty glad of the opportunity. You stir trouble, and are the
first one to hitch up and drive out of it. Now go on, and don't you let
me hear of any more murder stories."
Mrs. Blakemore, mother of the red boy, would not presume to say that
there was a stain on Milford's character; but he was undoubtedly
peculiar, with an air which bespoke a constant effort to hide something.
She knew, however, that there was good blood somewhere in his family.
She believed in blood. Her husband had failed in business, and she could
afford to despise trade. One Sunday, with her vacant-eyed husband and
her red tormentor, she halted at Milford's cottage. He was sitting on
the veranda, with the billows of a Sunday newspaper about him on the
floor. She introduced her husband, who nodded. She spoke of the fervor
of the day and the ragged cloud-skirts flaunting in the sky. She thought
it must be going to rain. In the city a rain was wasted, a sloppy
distress; but in the country it was a beautiful and refreshing
necessity. In each great drop there was a stanza of sentiment.
Milford's eyes twinkled. "You ought to go to a mining-camp," he said.
"Men who couldn't parse would call you a poem."
She turned to her husband. "George, do you hear that? Isn't that sweet?
So unaffected, too." George grunted; he was thinking of the receiver
that had had charge of his affairs. His wife continued, speaking to
Milford: "In my almost hothouse refinement, I have longed to see the
rude chivalry of the West--where a rhythm of true gallantry beats
beneath a woolen shirt."
"Yes," said Milford, "and beneath a linen shirt, too. The West is just
as wide but not so woolen as it was."
"Oh, what quaint conceits! George, do you hear them? George, dear."
"George, dear" turned a tired eye upon her. Affection seeking to console
a loved one sometimes chooses an unseasonable moment for the exercise of
its tender office. She felt the look of her husband's worry-rusted eye;
a memory of his weary pacing up and down the floor at night came to her,
of his groans upon a comfortless bed, his sighs at breakfast, his dark
brow as he went forth to try again to save his credit. She thought of
this; she felt that at this moment he needed her help. And
affectionately she put her hand upon his arm, and said: "You have met
reverses, George, but you've still got me." And George muttered: "You
bet I have." She glanced at him as if she felt that he said it with a
lack of enthusiasm, as if it were a sad fact acknowledged rather than a
possession declared; and she would have replied with a thin sentiment
strained through the muslin of a summer book, but George turned away.
She followed and he opened a gate and halted, waiting for her to pass
through. The boy crawled under the fence. She scolded the youngster,
brushed at his clothes, and said to George:
"He is almost a gentleman."
"Who is so far gone as that?"
"Why, the man back there on the veranda."
"I don't know what you mean by almost a gentleman."
"Oh, George, don't you know that there are distinctions?"
"But I don't see how a man can be almost a gentleman. You might as well
say that a man almost has money."
"Bobbie, don't try to climb over that stump. There's a poison vine on
it. Money is not everything, George."
"Comes devilish near it."
"No, George. Money is not love."
"Well, I don't know about that," he said, in a way implying that he did
know.
"Don't be cynical, dear," she replied. "We are both young; we have
everything before us."
"Everything we had is behind us."
She pulled upon his arm, and kissed his dry cheek. "Don't be downcast.
Everything will come right."
Mitchell, the hired man, came out upon the veranda. "A sappy pea-vine
and a dried pea-stick," said Milford, pointing toward George and his
wife.
"He looks like he's tired," said the hired man.
"Yes, a fly in a pot of jam. She's too sweet for him. He ought to break
loose from her and run wild for a while--ought to rough it out West on
fat sow bosom and heifer's delight. Never were married, were you, Bob?"
"Well, not for any length of time. I did marry a girl over near Antioch
once, but shortly afterwards they took me up for sellin' liquor without
a license, and when I got through with the scrape I found my wife was
gone with a feller to Kansas."
"Did you ever hear of her?"
"Oh, yes, she writ to me. She wanted to come back, but I scratched her
word that I'd try to jog along without her. I don't guess women are
exactly what they used to be. I reckon the bicycle has changed 'em a
good bit."
"They want money, Bob. That's what's the matter with 'em."
"Well, they've got about all I ever had, them and liquor together, and
still they don't seem to be satisfied. Ever married, Bill?"
"No. But I was on the edge of falling in love once. She squirted poison
at me out of her eyes, and I shook in the knees. Her smile kept me awake
two nights, and on the third morning I got on my pony, said good-bye to
the settlement, and rode as hard as I could. I don't suppose she really
saw me--but I saw her, and that was enough. Well, I believe I'll go over
and chin the old woman."
Mrs. Stuvic was walking up and down the yard. A number of new boarders
had arrived, and she was in a great flurry. She was ever on the lookout
for new-comers, but was never prepared for them. She told every one to
keep still; she spoke in bywords that barked the shins of profanity.
Just as Milford came up, some one told her that her hired man was lying
out in the grove, drunk and asleep. Upon her informer she bent a
recognition of virtue. It was not exactly a grin. The boarders called it
her barbed-wire smile. She thanked him with a nod and a courtesy caught
up from a memory of her grandmother. She snatched a buggy whip and
sallied forth into the grove. Milford followed her. She told him to
stand back. She swore she would give it to him if he presumed to
interfere. She knew her business. The Lord never shut her eyes to a duty
that lay in front of her. The hired man went howling through the woods,
and she returned to the house, smiling placidly. She was always better
humored when she had kept faith with duty.
"Bill," she said to Milford, "tell those women who you are. They are all
crazy to know."
"Why didn't you tell them?"
"Well, how was I to tell 'em somethin' I didn't know? You haven't told
me. Who are you, Bill? Come, speak up. I've fooled with you long enough.
Come, who are you?"
"A Yankee from the West."
"Shut up. Go on away from here. Who told you to come? Did anybody send
after you?" By this time they had reached the veranda. A kitten came out
to meet her. She called to the Dutch girl to bring some milk in a
saucer. "Poor little wretch," she said. "Well, sir, it do beat all.
About a week ago I found that I'd have to drown a litter of kittens. I
had a barrel of water ready at the corner of the house. I got all the
kittens together except one. I couldn't find him. After a while, I heard
him mewing under the house. I looked under and see him fastened, and he
couldn't get out. He was nearly starved. I said, 'You little wretch,
I'll fix you,' and I crawled under after him. I had a time at gettin'
him, too; and when I did get him he looked so pitiful that I gave him
some milk. Then I gave the others milk, and didn't drown 'em. I have
provided homes for all except this one, and I'm goin' to keep him. Here,
lap your milk."
Old Lewson sat beneath an apple tree. Milford went out to talk with him.
The old man looked up, his eyes red under white lashes. His hat was on
the ground, and in it were two eggs.
"My dinner," said he, pointing to the eggs. "If I didn't listen for the
cackling of the hens I'd starve to death. I can't eat anything but eggs;
and they must be fresh. That infernal Dutch girl spoiled my supper last
night. She ran over me, as usual, and broke my eggs. I wish she was
dead."
"They ought to hobble her like a horse," said Milford.
"They ought to break her bones, and I would if I was strong enough," the
old man declared. "She kindled a fire with my spiritualist books. Are
you a spiritualist?"
"No, I'm merely an ordinary crank."
"Fool, you mean," said the old fellow. "A man that shuts his eyes to the
truth is a fool. See this?" He took from his pocket a pale photograph,
and handed it to Milford. "That's a picture of my wife, taken ten years
after the change. She came to see me not long ago, and I cut off a piece
of her dress. Here it is." From a pocketbook he took a piece of white
silk.
"They dress pretty well over there," said Milford, examining it.
"Yes. She wove it herself."
"Looks as if it might have been done by a fine machine."
"It was; it was woven in the loom of her mind. Over there, whatever the
mind wills is done. But you can't make fools understand it."
"I suppose not. What will become of the Dutch girl when she goes over?"
"They'll make a dray-horse of her. Here comes the old woman. She
pretends she don't believe in it. But she does. She can't help herself."
The old fellow hid his eggs. She looked at him sharply. "He'd rather
hear the cackle of a hen than a church organ," she said to Milford.
"Yes, it means more," the old man replied.
"Well, you won't rob my hens much longer. Your days are numbered."
"So are yours, ma'am."
"Now, don't you fret. I'll plant flowers on your grave."
"See that you don't plant hog-weeds."
"What difference will it make to you? Your soul will be gone. But what
will you do over there? You'd be out of place makin' silk dresses. If
you do make any send me one. I'll want it when I marry again."
"Why do you want to dress up to meet a fool?"
"Shut your rattle-trap. It will be a wise man that marries me. If Bill
here was a little older, I'd set my cap for him. Wouldn't I, Bill?"
"I don't doubt it. We can all set a trap for a fox, but it takes a
shrewd trapper to catch him."
The old man chuckled. She looked at him and said that he would have
been hauled off long ago, but that the devil didn't care to hitch up for
one--Yankee-like, wanting a load whenever he drove forth. "But before
you go, Lewson, I want you to promise me one thing,--that you will come
back. You've got me half-way into the notion that you can."
"I will come back the third night, ma'am," he replied, his voice
earnest. "When my body has been in the grave three days I will come back
to my room and meet you there."
Milford turned away. The old woman followed him. "Do you believe he can
come back?" she asked.
His sharp eyes cut round at her, like the swing of a scythe. "An old log
may learn to float up-stream," he said. She stepped in front of him.
"You've done somethin' that you don't want known," she declared. "As
smart a man as you wouldn't come out here and work on a farm for
nothin'."
"I don't expect to work for nothing."
"Come into the house, Bill. Those women want to get acquainted with
you."
"Why don't they get acquainted with their husbands?"
"I know it," she replied, with a look, and in a younger eye the light
would have been a gleam of mischief, but with her it was a glint almost
of viciousness. "I know it. They are always after a curiosity. They've
got it into their heads that you've done some sort of deviltry, and they
want to talk to you. One of them said her husband was such a dear, dull
business man. And nearly all of them hate children."
"I hate a woman that hates children," Milford replied, and the old woman
said, "I know it."
Mrs. Blakemore, the tired George, and the tugging boy came into the
yard. The woman's eyes brightened when she saw Milford. It seemed that
the other women had commissioned her to sound his mysterious depth. His
keen eyes, his sharp-cut beard, a sort of sly unconcern marked him a
legitimate summer exploration. Men from the city came and went,
shop-keepers, tailors, machinists, lawyers, driveling of hard times and
the hope of a business revival, and no particular attention was paid to
them, but here was a man with a hidden history. Perhaps he was a
deserter from the regular army; doubtless he had killed an officer for
insulting him. This was a sweet morsel and they made a bon-bon of it.
"I hope you are not going just because we came," said Mrs. Blakemore to
Milford. "George, do take that rocker and sit down. You look so tired.
Go away, Bobbie. You are such a pest."
A straining voice in the sitting-room and the tin-pan tones of a piano
were hushed, and out upon the veranda came several women. Milford was
introduced to them. Some of them advanced with a smile, and some hung
back in a sweet dread of danger. Milford sat down on a corner of the
veranda with his feet on the ground. A wagon load of beer-drinkers,
singing lustily, drove past the house. From the lake came the report of
a gun, some one firing at a loon. There seemed to be no law to enforce
respect for the day which the Puritan called Sabbath, and which the
austerity of his creed had made so cold and cheerless. On Sunday night
there had been a hop on the shore of the lake, and a constable had
danced with a skillet-wiper from town. The children of the New Englander
sell their winter piety for the summer dollar.
"I can't conceive of anything more delicious than this atmosphere," said
Mrs. Blakemore. "It's heavenly down by the lake. And in the woods there
are such beautiful ferns. Are you fond of ferns, Mr. Milford?"
"Don't believe I ever ate any," Milford answered, and the women screamed
with laughter. One of them spoke of such charming impudence, and George
looked at her with his cankered eye. Mrs. Stuvic said, "Oh, you keep
still!" The Dutch girl passed at a spraddling gallop, setting a dog at a
chicken condemned to death. Old Lewson shouted and shrank behind a tree.
Mrs. Blakemore's thin hand was seen in the air. It was a command, and
silence fell.
"Would you mind telling us something of the wild life in the West?"
"There's no wild life in the West now," Milford answered. "It is there,
as it is nearly everywhere, a round of stale dishonesty."
"George, dear, do you hear that? Stale dishonesty! Really, there is
thought in that. Western men are so apt in their phrasing. They aren't
afraid of critical judgment. But they are too picturesque to be simple.
They are like an old garden run to blossoming weeds--the impudent new
springing from the venerable old. Did you hear me, George?"
"How's that?" George asked, looking up from a dream of trouble.
"Oh, I shall not repeat it. Mr. Milford, nearly all my thoughts are
wasted on him. His mind is occupied by things sterner but not nearer
true." George grunted something that sounded like "bosh." She smiled and
tapped him on the arm. Her face was thin but pretty. Milford gave her an
admiring look. She caught it in an instant and drooped her eyes at him.
Some of the women saw it and pulled at one another, standing close
together. But the old woman did not see it. Her eye was not set for so
fine a mischief. A Mrs. Dorch began to hum a tune. She left off to tell
Milford that she had a sister in Dakota. She had gone out as a
school-teacher, and had been married by a rancher. His name was Lampton.
It was possible that Mr. Milford might know him. He did not, but it gave
her a chance to talk, and the slim Mrs. Blakemore began to droop her
eyes. The man was nothing to her. She wouldn't stoop to set up a
conquest over him, so much in love was she with her husband, but what
right had this woman to cut in?
"Oh, I could never think of talking commonplaces with a man from the
wilds," she said. "He may never have read poetry, but he is a lover of
it. Tell me, is it true that certain flowers disappeared with the
buffalo?"
"I don't know, ma'am, but a good deal of grass disappeared with him."
It was a cue to laugh, and they laughed. Mrs. Blakemore said that
Milford was becoming intentionally droll. She much preferred unconscious
drollery.
Attention was now given to three men who came across the meadow from the
lake. One of them proudly held up a string of sun-fish. A fisherman's
ear is keen-set for flattery. The women knew this, and they uttered
"ohs" and "ahs" of applause. The fishermen came up, everybody talking at
once, and Milford slipped away. He passed through the hickory grove and
turned into the broad lane leading to the lake. He saw Mrs. Stuvic's
hired man, sitting under a tree, muttering, a red streak across his
face.