ACROSS THE DITCH.
Early Tuesday morning a girl from the poor-house went to Mrs. Stuvic's
place. This meant that the season was about closed, that the
"journeyman" cook had been discharged, the "help" told to go, and that
this wretched creature was to do the work. Careful not to appear too
early, Milford came almost too late. The carriage had set out for the
station. He ordered the driver to stop. He reminded Gunhild of her
promise to walk with him across the fields. She declared that she had
not promised, but said that she was willing enough to walk. Mrs. Goodwin
cautioned her not to loiter by the way; it would greatly put her out to
miss the train. Gunhild jumped out, Milford catching at her, and the
carriage drove on. They walked down the road to a place where there was
a gap in the fence, and here they entered the field. Down deep in the
grass a horde of insects shouted their death songs. Their day of
judgment was soon to lie white upon the ground. Artists in their way,
with no false notes, with mission ended, they were to die in art, among
fantastic pictures wrought by the frost. Milford did not try to hide his
sadness. The girl was livelier; the girl nearly always is.
"The other day I got near you, although others were present, but now
you are far off," he said. "Must I rope you every time I want you?"
She laughed at this picture of life in the West, thrown in a word. Again
she saw men lassoing the cattle. But the potato field came back to her,
the rough words of the men, the drudgery, and her face grew sad. "I am
as close to you now as I was then."
"Not with your eyes. Stop. Let me look at you."
They halted and stood face to face. "Give me your eyes." She gave them
to him without a waver. But she reminded him that they must not miss the
train. Afar off they could see the carriage turn a corner.
"When am I to see you again?" he asked, as they walked on.
"I do not know that," she answered. "I shall not stay in the winter time
at Mrs. Goodwin's house. She will have many persons there then, and will
not need me."
"The kingdom of heaven, though it were full, would need you."
"Sometimes you are a wild book, with sentences jumping out at me," she
said. "I must rope you," she added, laughing.
"I wish you would--I wish you'd choke me to death, and----"
"And what?"
"And then take my head in your lap."
"In your other life you must have stood at the bow of a boat, making the
sea red with the blood of your enemy--and in my other life I bound up
your wounds."
They came to a broad ditch. On each side was a forest of wild
sunflowers. "You could stand in there and blaze with them," he said,
stepping down into the ditch. "Give me your hand, and I'll help you
across."
"I can jump."
"Give me your hand--and I hope you'll stumble and fall."
She stood among the sunflowers, looking down at him. "Did you see the
cowboy preacher that came West?" she asked. "Would he not have had a
wild steer if he had roped your soul?"
"Give me your hand--both."
She gave him her hands, and leaped across the ditch. "I wish there were
a thousand," he said, climbing out. "But you haven't answered me. When
am I to see you again?"
"I am coming again with Mrs. Goodwin next summer."
"That'll be like a boy's Christmas--ten years in coming. Can't I come to
see you in town?"
"I shall not be in the town. I am going into the country to teach."
"Then I can come into the country."
"No. With your wild ways you would make me feel ashamed."
"You are right--I've got sense enough to see it. But is there to be no
better understanding between us?"
"Didn't you say that all--something could not keep us apart? Is not
that understanding enough?" They had halted again, and she had given him
her eyes.
"It's an acknowledgment, but not a plan. What I want is something to
work up to."
"There is the carriage coming down the road over yonder. Mrs. Goodwin is
waving her handkerchief at me. The station is just across the fence."
"I know all that. But won't you let me write to you?"
"I should like to hear from you. A letter from you in the winter might
bring the summer back--the crickets in the grass and the wild sunflowers
by the ditch. Yes, you may write to me."
"And you will send me your address?"
"Yes, I will write first--when I go to the country. Not before."
"And if you don't go to the country I am not to know where you are?"
"But I am going to the country. You shall hear."
Near the road, between them and the station, stood an old cheese
factory, now inhabited by summer vagabonds. The windows were stuffed
with cast-off clothes. It was a wretched place, but now it served a
purpose--it shut off all view from the station. It made no difference as
to who might peep from the windows.
They walked on slowly a few paces, and halted behind the old house. They
heard the rumble of the train. He looked down at her up-turned face. Her
lips were slightly apart as if on the eve of Utterance. He thought of
the seam in a ripe peach.
"There, the train is coming," she said.
"Plenty--plenty of time."
"No. Mrs. Goodwin is calling me. Good-bye," she said, still suffering
him to hold her hand. "Are you always going to be a wild man?"
"You remember what they used to call me."
"Yes, that bad name. But I must go."
She ran away from him. He strode back across the field. He heard the
train when it stopped and when it started again, but did not look round.
He stood in the ditch where he had helped her across. There was the
print of her foot in the moist earth. He heard the crickets crying in
the deep grass. He lay down for a moment, and felt that the cry of his
heart drowned all sounds of earth. "If it were only different," he said
to himself, over and over again. "When she knows, what will she think?
Must she know? Perhaps not--I hope not. When it is all over, I will kill
it in my own breast." He was conscious of the theatrical. He was on the
stage. Glow-worms were his footlights; his orchestra was deep-hidden in
the grass. "Why can't a man be genuine?" he asked himself. "Why does a
heart put on, talk to itself, and strut?"
In the road he met Mrs. Blakemore walking with Bobbie. The boy had a
long stick, pushing it on the ground in front of himself. He called it
his plow. His mother cautioned him. He might hurt himself. The stick
struck a lump in the road and punched him. He howled just as Milford
came up.
"I told you not to shove that stick. And now you've nearly ruined
yourself. Here's Mr. Milford. Perhaps he will carry you."
Milford took the boy on his back. "You are my horse," said the boy,
whimpering. They turned toward the house, Mrs. Blakemore striving to
keep step with Milford. "Don't go so fast. I can't keep step with you,"
she said.
"Get up," the boy commanded.
"How long do you expect to stay?" Milford asked.
"I don't know," she answered. "George is away on a tour, and I am to
wait till I hear from him. I don't think I'll be here but a few days
longer. I ought to put Bobbie in school."
"We'll have a good deal more of warm weather," Milford said; "and
October out here I should think is the finest time of the year."
"Oh, yes, but you know we must get back. After all, the summer spent in
the country is a hardship. We give up everything for the sake of being
out of doors. Put him down when he gets heavy."
"He's all right. Yes, hardship in many ways. But hardships make us
stronger; still, I don't know that we need to be much stronger. We are
strong enough now for our weak purposes."
"You mean spiritually stronger, don't you? Well, I don't know. But, of
course, we are more meditative when we have been close to nature, and
that always gives us a sort of spiritual help. But the time out here
might be spent to great advantage, in reading and serious converse. As
it is, however, people seem ashamed to talk anything but nonsense. They
hoot at anything that has a particle of sentiment in it. And as for
art--well, so few persons know anything about art. And on this account I
shall miss Mrs. Goodwin so much. She talked beautifully on art. Don't
you think so?"
"She talks well on almost any subject."
"And Gunhild is a real artist," she said, looking at him. "Did she show
you any of her drawings?"
"No. I didn't ask her and she didn't offer to show them."
"Perhaps you were more interested in the artist than in her art."
"Yes, that may be about the size of it."
"Do you know, Mr. Milford, I can't fathom you. Sometimes you speak with
positive sentiment and dignity, and then again you are a repository of
slang. Why is it? Is it because that, at times, I am incapable of--shall
I say inspiring?"
"Yes, I guess that's about the proper thing to say. No. What am I
talking about? You are always inspiring, of course. The fault lies with
me."
"Such a strange man!" she said, meditatively. "Mrs. Stuvic declares she
doesn't know you any better now than she did the first day, but I
believe I do, though not much better, I must confess. I wish you would
tell me something."
"Well, what is it?"
"Did you know Gunhild before she came out here?"
"I had never spoken to her."
"Well, it's very strange. You got acquainted very soon. Oh, I know she
was out here quite a while, still--oh, you know what I mean. Yes, you
met her at the haunted house--once. More than once? Am I too
inquisitive? But I am so interested."
He acted the part of a politer man; he said that she was not too
inquisitive--glad that she was interested. The boy, pulling at his ears,
the bridle, turned his head toward her, and he caught the drooping of
her eye. Over him she had established a sentimental protectorate, in
accordance with a Monroe Doctrine of the heart, and resented foreign
aggression.
"So much interested in Gunhild, you know," she said. "Peculiar girl, not
yet Americanized. Perhaps it is her almost blunt honesty that gives her
the appearance of lacking tact. But tact is the protection of honesty.
Don't you think so?"
"I don't know anything about tact, as you understand it. I know what it
is to get the drop on a man, and I suppose the woman of tact always has
the drop. Is that it?"
"Yes," she laughed, walking close beside him. "A woman of tact is never
taken unawares."
"A suspicious woman, I take it."
"Well, a ready woman. And Gunhild is not dull, but she is not always
ready. Do you think so?"
"I'll be--I don't know what you're driving at."
"Get up," the boy cried, clucking.
"Perhaps I am a little obscure. But I thought you would understand."
"But I swear I don't."
"Then it would be cruel to explain."
"It would? You've got to explain now." He halted and turned to her. The
boy pulled at his ears. Her laughter came like the rippling of cool
water.
"You know that Gunhild is an experiment," she said. "She was a girl of
talent with uncertain manners. Even her restraint is blunt. And I think
that Mrs. Goodwin has found her a failure."
Milford began to ease the boy to the ground. "I must bid you good
evening here," he said.
"Won't you come to the house to supper?"
"No. I'll go and eat at a table where no restraint is blunt and where no
experiment is a failure."
"I have offended you," she said, taking the boy by the hand. "And I
didn't mean it, I'm sure. I hope you don't think that I would say a word
against her. We are all fond of her, I'm sure. But we are all interested
in you."
"In me? Who the--the deuce am I? What cause have you to be interested in
me? You are not interested in me, except as a sort of freak--a
mud-turtle, caught in the lake, viewed by woman with their 'ahs' and
'ohs,' standing back holding their skirts. I know that woman. She is
worth----"
"I thought you said you didn't know her till she came out here?"
"I said I'd never spoken to her."
"Know her but had never spoken to her. The plot curdles. Really, Mr.
Milford, what I said was simply to draw you out. I don't know a thing
against her; I don't think she's a failure. Now tell me what you know. I
am hungry for something of interest; I'm tired to death of this
everlasting market report. If she and you have been mixed up in a
romance, tell me, please. Bobbie, don't pull at me. I'm going in a
moment."
"The ripening fruit of a romance," said Milford, putting his hand on the
boy's head. "Isn't that enough for you?"
"The fruit is a tender care; the bud a careless pleasure," she replied.
"Tell me about it--now. I might not see you again."
"Then you will soon forget."
"Oh, no, I can't forget you. You have had a strong influence on me--for
good, I am sure. You have some noble purpose, hidden away, and when we
meet one with a noble purpose we feel stronger, though we may not know
what that purpose is. I long to do something in the world, too----"
"Then love your husband," said the tactless man.
"What are you saying? I do love him."
"If you love him, you have a noble purpose."
"But who are you to talk so morally?"
"A man who has seen so much vice that he would like to see virtue.
There's my road," he said, pointing to the gate. "I must bid you
good-bye."