HIS NICKNAME.
The hot weather fled before a cool mist that came floating over from
Lake Michigan. A cold rain began to fall. Cows lowed, and dogs, soonest
of all creatures to feel a change in the atmosphere, crouched shivering
in the doorways. Milford worked in the barn till there was nothing more
to do, and then he went to the house and sat down with a newspaper. But
he could not find interest in it. He threw down the paper and from his
bag he took out a worn copy of Whittier. It was a day when we like to
read the old things which long ago we committed to memory. We know the
word before we reach it, but reaching it, we find it full of a new
meaning. But the hours are long when the heart is restless. Out in the
woods the mist hung in the tree-tops as if vapor were the world's
slow-moving time, balking among the dripping leaves. From a longing
Milford's desire to go over to Mrs. Stuvic's became a feverish throb.
But the old woman's grin and the red lantern waved in his face
constantly arose before him. He strove to recall what the girl had said.
He could not find the words that she had spoken, but he remembered that
he had felt an encouragement. He went out in the drizzle, to the knoll
in the oat field, and stood there, gazing toward the house. He cursed
himself for a fool and returned to his cheerless shelter. The hired man
sat at the dining-room table, playing solitaire with a pack of greasy
cards.
"I worked this thing the other day, but it won't come now," he said.
"But what have you done when you do it?"
"Well, not much of anything, but you're on top. Heigho! I'd almost
rather work than to sit around such a day as this. I don't believe we
can do anything in the field to-day. Think so?"
"No. Thinking about going somewhere?"
"Not exactly. Didn't know but I might go over to see my girl. Told me
the other day she was lonesome without me. And when you get a woman so
she's lonesome without you, why, you've got her foul. Haven't changed
your mind about not wantin' her here, have you?"
"No, and I don't expect to change it. I don't know how long I'll be
here." He strode up and down the room. "But I'll stick it out," he
added, talking to himself. "It's got to be done, no matter what comes."
"Yes, stick it out," said the hired man. "You've got too good a hold to
turn loose now. The fellers around have begun to praise you. They say
you are goin' to make a go of it."
"A go of what?"
"I don't know, but that's what they said."
"Bob, do you remember my telling you not long ago that I once jumped on
a horse and galloped away from a girl."
"Yes, and I thought of how different your case was from mine. Girl
galloped away from me. But what about it?"
"That woman is over at Mrs. Stuvic's now."
"You don't mean the same woman?"
"Yes, I do; the very same woman--a Norwegian."
"Did she say she was the same?"
"She hasn't said anything about it and neither have I. But I know she's
the same. She wasn't quite grown when I saw her in a little town out
West. She was at a hotel--I think her uncle ran the place. I don't
believe she ever noticed me. But I noticed her, and I made up my mind
that I wasn't going to be tangled up with her, so I rode away, whistling
over the prairie. Yes, sir, the same woman. I never could forget that
face, not so beautiful, but a face that takes hold and never turns
loose."
"Well, that is strange," said the hired man, looking at an ace of clubs
and slowly placing it on the table. "Believe I'm going to fluke on this
thing. Smart woman, Bill?"
"I don't know; I can't tell."
"But you've heard her talk, haven't you?"
"Yes," said Milford, standing at the window, looking out at the mist,
now trailing low over the fields. "I've heard her talk, but when a man
has galloped away from a woman he's not much of a judge of her mind."
"This ten specker wants to go right here. Now let me see. I guess you're
right, Bill. But what are you goin' to do about it?"
"I don't know."
"Well, that's perfectly natural. Six goes here. You better not let the
old woman find it out. She'll devil you to death."
"She already knows there's something up. It didn't take but a moment for
me to satisfy myself that this was the same girl; and I struck out
again, intending to go away; but I stopped at the gate and went back."
"But what makes you run away from 'em? I run after 'em. Built that way.
Canal cook goes here," he said, referring to a queen. "Is she skittish,
Bill?"
"No," said Milford, turning from the window and walking up and down the
room. "She's modest, but not skittish."
"And you don't remember whether she's got good sense or not?"
"Of course she has. What the devil are you talking about?"
"All right. But you said you didn't know. I simply want to get at the
merits of the case. I know a good deal about women as women go, and they
go. Been married once and slipped up three times. Can she talk without
smilin' all the time?"
"Yes. She's very earnest at times."
Mitchell raked the cards together, shuffled them and threw the pack on
the table. "A woman that smiles all the time wants you to think she's
better than she is. I married a smile."
"A frown trailing the skirts of a smile," said Milford, and then with a
laugh, he added: "I must have caught that from the Professor."
"I don't know, Bill. But a man that'll sit up and read poetry is apt to
say most anythin'. I once heard a fellow say that men read poetry
because they like it and women because they think they do."
"That fellow was a fool and a liar."
"Well, it's easy enough to be both. That sort of double harness is
always handy. I don't know much about your case, as I haven't seen her,
but if I was in your place I don't believe I'd rush things. A man that
starts in by being badly stuck generally has to win the woman--not often
that they are stuck alike. I'd stay away and make her get lonesome to
see me."
"But how can I tell whether or not she's lonesome to see me?"
"By her tryin' not to seem glad when she sees you again."
"But that leaves the case open for a trip-up. How can I tell that she's
trying not to seem glad?"
"Well, your horse-sense will have to tell you that. But I thought you
didn't want any woman on the place."
"I don't. In looking at it I haven't strained my eye as far as
marriage."
"Then what's the use of lovin' her? It's a waste of raw material."
"There's something I must do before I could permit myself to think of
marrying, and I'm going to do it if it takes a leg. But I'll tell you
what's a fact, I'd rather have that woman's love than anything on the
earth. Sometimes I think that if I knew she loved me I'd be willing to
die. There's somebody out there on the veranda."
A boy came with a note from the Professor's wife, inviting Milford to
supper that evening. There was no allusion to the cause that led to his
kicking up the dust in front of her gate. It would give her husband, her
daughter and herself great pleasure to have him come, and it was hoped
that he would not disappoint them. The boy had not waited for an answer.
The courtesy fell as an obligation. There was no easy way to dodge it.
He would go.
The afternoon was long. Mitchell rigged himself in his best, bought of a
peddler after much haggling, and went forth to woo the freckled woman.
Milford strolled out into the woods. It was a pleasure to stand in the
mist, the trees shadowy about him. It was dreamy to fancy the fog a torn
fragment of night, floating through the day. It was easy to imagine the
lake a boundless sea. Over the rushes a loon flew, a gaunt and feathered
loneliness, looking for a place to light. Milford strolled along a
pathway, over high ground, once the brow of the receding lake; and here
the growth was heavy, with great trees leaning toward the marsh and
hawthorn thickets standing in rounded groups. He came to an open space.
In the midst of it stood a sapling. A grape vine had spread over its
branches, neatly trimming its outer edges, a hoisted umbrella of leaves.
He stopped short. On a boulder beneath this canopy, with her back toward
him, almost hidden, sat a woman. She was wrapped in a cloak. But there
was no mistaking her hair. She heard his footstep and looked round. She
did not appear much surprised. She arose with a smile.
"I have been sitting here in Norway," she said. "See the cliffs?" she
added, pointing to a mountain range of mist.
"But you must have got wet."
"No. But it would make no difference. I do not mind it. I love such a
day. It is an etching. Do you go this way? I have stayed long enough."
She walked along the path in front of him, bending to avoid the low
boughs, laughing when a wet leaf slapped her cheek.
"Let me go in front to clear the way," he said.
"Oh, no, I like this."
She leaped across a gulley. A briar pulled at her skirts. She turned
about with the merest tint of a blush. He was not enough of an idealist
to etherealize her. He felt her spirit, but acknowledged her a flesh and
blood woman, belonging to the earth, but as the flower does, with a
perfume. Her lips bespoke passion; her eyes control. He was glad that he
saw her so clearly.
"We shall soon be to the road," she said.
"And you mean that you will leave me there as you did the other night?"
"You are quick to guess."
"Is it because you don't want to be seen with me?"
"Yes. Those women talk."
"But haven't they--haven't they any faith in their kind?"
"Not much," she said frankly.
"But why should you care what they say?"
She looked back at him. "I mean that you are so far above them," he
added. "You are worth all of them put together."
"It is very kind of you to say so. But I am not."
"I would swear it on a stack of Bibles."
"Your oath would not be taken. But let us not talk about it. You do not
know what you say when you praise me. I don't place myself above them. I
know myself." She halted, turned about and held forth her hand. "See, I
have worked in the potato field. I have been a laborer."
"I am a laborer now," he said as they walked on. "There's no disgrace in
work."
"Not for a man, not for a woman, but in a field with rough men--" she
shrugged her shoulders.
"But the rough men--they had no effect on you," he said, almost
pleadingly. "What effect could they have?"
"I was very young. Even at school I had not forgotten their oaths. My
uncle sent me to school. He was a poor man, but he sent me."
"Didn't he run a hotel at one time?" he asked.
"Yes, out in Dakota. I worked for him between terms. There were many
Norwegians about, and I learned English slowly. But this is of no
interest to you."
"Yes, it is--the keenest sort of interest. I mean I like to hear it.
What became of your uncle?"
"He is a gripman on a cable train in the city. One of these days I am
going to pay him back. And I am going to pay Mrs. Goodwin, too. I will
be her companion as long as it pleases her, and then I must find work. I
think I can teach drawing in the country. I could do nothing at it in
town. Now, you see, I must be careful not to have any talk. I can take
care of myself anywhere, in a potato field or in the woods, but I must
not distress Mrs. Goodwin. This is the road."
"Wait a moment. I feel more at liberty to talk to you."
"Now that you find out that I have been a laborer? I do not like that. I
wish you had not said it."
"Wait. No, not that, but because we are more of a kind in a way--we both
have an object. I am going to pay a man. That's the reason I dig in the
hot sun."
"Are you so honest?"
"No, I'm worse than a thief. Don't go--just one moment, please. Sometime
I may tell you. They think I like to work, but I hate it. In my thoughts
I have committed a thousand murders with my hoe. Let me ask you a
question, one laborer of another. Do you like me?"
"Very much," she answered, looking at him steadily.
"I thank the Lord for that much. We might help each other to--"
"No, our battles are apart."
"Oh, I didn't mean that. I mean we can help each other spiritually.
Don't you think so?"
"We can all help one another spiritually," she said. "May I go now?" she
asked, smiling.
"I wish I could keep you from going. Wait. I can't understand that you
have labored in a field. You are the most graceful woman I ever
saw--the most perfect lady couldn't discount you. You've got good
blood. I believe in blood."
"I am of a good family," she said. "My father was once a man of some
importance. But the world turned against him. Blood is all that saved
me."
"I've got one more word to say, now that we are better acquainted. I
jumped on a horse once and galloped away from you--out at the little
town on the prairie. You don't remember me, but I do you."
"Galloped away from me!" she said in surprise. "Why did you do that?"
"Because I didn't want to get tangled up. Did you ever see a bigger
fool? And when I saw you out here I started off again, but I stopped and
said, 'I'll be damned if I do.' Once is enough. May I tell you more?"
"No," she said, stepping back. "I have heard enough. And what you tell
me may not be true--about galloping away. I don't mean to offend you.
But I have been taught to believe--"
"That all men are liars," he suggested. She nodded. "They taught you
about right," he went on. "Yes, they did. But sometimes the biggest liar
may tell the truest truth. They took you out of the field and taught you
politeness. I went from a college out into the wilds and there I forgot
learning and learned deviltry. Do you know what they used to call me?
Hell-in-the-Mud. That was my nickname. Hell-in-the-Mud, think of it! And
what saved me, if I am saved? An old woman living on a hillside in
Connecticut--my mother--prayed for me and died. It's a fact. I don't
know whether there's a God or not, that is, for the average run of us,
but there's one for her. Prayed for Hell-in-the-Mud, and her prayer was
printed in the village paper, and I got hold of it. Then I said I would
pay him--a man. But go on, I'm telling you too much."
She turned away without saying another word and almost ran along the
road. He stood watching her, hoping that she would look back at him, but
she did not. He went to the house. He snatched the cards from the table
and tore them into bits. "I hate the sight of them," he said. The clock
struck five. He was reminded of his engagement at the Professor's, and
he hastened to fill it. He had dreaded to meet the woman who had scared
him out of her dooryard. His nerve had been lead. Now it was iron.