A Yankee from the West Part 28

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 n.o.ble purpose, hidden away, and when we meet one with a n.o.ble 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 n.o.ble 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."

CHAPTER XIX.

A WOMAN'S THREAT.

A cow that had been hurt by a falling tree went limping down the road, and Milford, looking at her, said that she pictured the pa.s.sing of time.

And when at evening he saw her again, he said that she was the same hour, pa.s.sing twice. In the woods he met the girl from the poor-house, and she told him that Mrs. Blakemore was gone. One afternoon Mrs. Stuvic sent for him, and when he went she scolded him for not having come sooner to lighten the dark hour of her loneliness. She was afraid of solitude. In the bustle of a boarding-house, in fault-finding, in all annoyances, there was life, with no time to muse upon the soul's fall of the year; but in the empty rooms, the quiet yard, the hushed piano, there was a mocking stillness, the companion of death. She hated death.

It had a cold grip, and old Lewson had proved that there was no breaking away from it. To her it was not generous Nature's humane leveler; it was vicious Nature giving one's enemies an opportunity to exult. She declared that if all her enemies were dead, she would not oppose death.

A woman in the neighborhood had sworn that she would drag a dead cat over her grave; she was a spiteful wretch, and she would do it. Years ago there had been a fight over a line fence, and Mrs. Stuvic had won the suit, hence the only proper thing to do was to wait till she was buried and then to drag a dead cat over her grave. A terrible triumph!

The old woman shuddered as she spoke of it. She had a premonition that she was to die in the winter, alone, at night, while creaking wagons pa.s.sed the gate and stiff-jointed dogs bayed the frozen moon. They would cut away the snow and bury her--and then at night would come the woman with the dead cat. She could see it all, the frozen clods, the pine head-board with her name in pencil upon it, the cat left lying there, the woman returning home to gloat in the light of a warm room. Upon a bench on the veranda Milford sat and listened and did not smile, and accepting his grimness as a sympathy, her hard eye grew moist, a flint-stone wet with dew. She asked him if he had an idea as to who that woman was; and when he answered that he did not, she said:

"n.o.body but my own sister. Now, you keep still. And that's the reason I was so quick to let you have that farm almost at your own terms. I was afraid some one would rent it for her. Oh, but you may call me unnatural and all that sort of thing, but you don't know what I've had to contend with. My first husband died a drunkard. Many a time I've hauled him home almost frozen. He'd leave me without a bite to eat and spend every cent of money he had. And many a time I told him I'd pour whiskey on him after he was dead--and I did--yes, you bet! I said, 'Now go soak in it throughout eternity.' Ah, Lord, one person don't know how another one lives. I've had nothin' but trouble, trouble--all the time trouble."

"We all have our troubles, madam."

"Hush your mouth. You don't know what troubles are. Think of havin' to fight with your own blood kin, your own children. Think of your own daughter slanderin' you, and your own son havin' you arrested!"

"I expect you've had a pretty hard life, Mrs. Stuvic."

"Hard life! That don't tell half of it."

"And yet you want to stay here longer."

"What! Do you reckon I want to give Nan a chance to drag that cat over my grave?"

"Let her drag it. What's the difference? You won't know anything about it."

"But how do I know that? And I'd be in a pretty fix, havin' her drag a cat over me and not bein' able to help myself. No, I want to wait till she dies, the unnatural thing."

"Can't you make it up with her?"

"Make it up with her? Do you reckon I want to make it up with her? Do you reckon I'd stoop that much?"

"You call her unnatural. Don't you think you may be just a little unnatural yourself?"

"Now, look here, if you're goin' to take her part you march yourself off this place."

"I'm not taking her part. I don't know her."

"Then keep still. Don't you think you'd better come over to the house and stay durin' the winter?"

"No, I'd rather stay over there."

"All by yourself?"

"Bob'll be there."

"Land's sakes, are you goin' to keep him all winter? I thought you had more sense than to put on such lugs. But you've got to come over here every night or two. I don't want to die here alone."

A boy on a horse rode up to the gate. The old woman went out to him. She came running back, with her limp hands flapping in the air. Her sister had sent for her. She begged Milford to hitch up the pony as fast as he could. She said that he must drive her over there.

On the road she did not speak a word, except to give directions. She sat stiff and grim. Persons whom they pa.s.sed stared at her, straight, squaw-like, with a hawk feather standing sharp in her hat. They drew up at a small white house in the woods. Yellow leaves were falling about it. A peac.o.c.k spread the harsh alarm of their arrival. The old woman commanded Milford to get out and to wait for her. She did not know how long she might stay. A woman opened the door for them. Mrs. Stuvic recognized her as the mother of the girl from the poor-house. Milford sat down in the dreary pa.s.sage-way. Mrs. Stuvic followed the woman into a room. The lines about her mouth tightened as she caught sight of her sister, on a bed in a corner. She drew up a chair, and sat down by the bedside.

"What's the matter, Nan?"

The sister slowly turned upon her pillow and looked at her with gaunt eyes and open mouth.

"Dying," she whispered in her hard breathing.