Red Saunders: His Adventures West & East
When the Chinook Struck Fairfield
I
Miss Mattie sat on her little front porch, facing the setting sun.Across the road, now ankle deep in June dust, was the wreck of thePeters place: back-broken roof, crumbling chimneys, shuttershanging down like broken wings, the old house had the patheticappeal of ship-wrecked gentility. A house without people in it,even when it is in repair, is as forlorn as a dog who has lost hismaster.
Up the road were more houses of the nondescript village pattern,made neither for comfort nor looks. God knows why they built suchhouses--perhaps it was in accordance with the old Puritan idea thatany kind of physical perfection is blasphemy. Some of these werekept in paint and window glass, but there were enough poorrelations to spoil the effect.
Down the road, between the arches of the weeping willows, camefirst the brook, with the stone bridge--this broken as to copingand threadbare in general--then on the hither side of the way somethree or four neighbour's houses, and opposite, the blacksmith'sshop and post-office, the latter, of course, in a store, where youcould buy anything from stale groceries to shingles.
In short, Fairfield was an Eastern village whose cause haddeparted. A community drained of the male principle, leaving onlya few queer men, the blacksmith, and some halfling boys, to givetone to the background of dozens of old maids.
An unsympathetic stranger would have felt that nothing was left tothe Fairfieldians but memory, and the sooner they lost that, thebetter.
Take a wineglassful of raspberry vinegar, two tablespoonsful ofsugar, half a cup each of boneset and rhubarb, a good full cup ofthe milk of human kindness, dilute in a gallon of water, and youhave the flavor of Fairfield. There was just enough of eachingredient to spoil the taste of all the rest.
Miss Mattie rested her elbow on the railing, her chin in her hand,and gazed thoughtfully about her. As a matter of fact, she was themost inspiring thing in view. At a distance of fifty yards she wasstill a tall, slender girl. Her body retained the habit, as wellas the lines of youth; a trick of gliding into unexpected, pleasingattitudes, which would have been awkward but for the suppleness oflimb to which they testified, and the unconsciousness and ease oftheir irregularity.
Her face was a child's face in the ennobling sense of the word.The record of the years written upon it seemed a masquerade--theface of a clear-eyed girl of fourteen made up to represent her ownaunt at a fancy dress party. A face drawn a trifle fine, a littleascetic, but balanced by the humour of the large, shapely mouth,and really beautiful in bone and contour. The beauty ofmignonette, and doves, and gentle things.
You could see that she was thirty-five, in the blatant candor ofnoon, but now, blushed with the pink of the setting sun, she wasstill in the days of the fairy prince.
Miss Mattie's revery idled over the year upon year of respectablestupidity that represented life in Fairfield, while her eyes andsoul were in the boiling gold of the sky-glory. She sighed.
A panorama of life minced before Miss Mattie's mind about as vividand full of red corpuscles as a Greek frieze. Her affectionatenature was starved. They visited each other, the ladies ofFairfield--these women who had rolled on the floor together asbabies--in their best black, or green or whatever it might be, andgloves! This, though the summer sun might be hammering down withall his might. And then they sat in a closed room and talked in areserved fashion which was entirely the property of the call. Ofcourse, one could have a moment's real talk by chance meeting, andthere were the natural griefs of life to break the corsets of thisetiquette, although in general, the griefs seemed to be long drawnout and conventional affairs, as if nature herself at last yieldedto the system, conquered by the invincible conventionality andstubbornness of the ladies of Fairfield. It was the unspoken butfirm belief of each of these women, that a person of their circlewho had no more idea of respectability than to drop dead on thepublic road would never go to Heaven.
Poor Miss Mattie! Small wonder she dropped her hands, sat back andwondered, with another sigh, if it were for this she was born? Shedid not rebel--there was no violence in her--but she regrettedexceedingly. In spite of her slenderness, it was a wide,mother-lap in which her hands rested, an obvious cradle for littlechildren. And instinctively it would come to you as you looked ather, that there could be no more comfortable place for a tired manto come home to, than a household presided over by thisslow-moving, gentle woman. There was nothing old-maidish aboutMiss Mattie but the tale of her years. She had had offers, such asFairfield and vicinity could boast, and declined them with tact,and the utmost gratitude to the suitor for the compliment; but her"no" though mild was firm, for there lay within her a certain quietvaliant spirit, which would rather endure the fatigue andloneliness of old age in her little house, than to take a largerlife from any but the man who was all. A commonplace in fiction;in real life sometimes quite a strain.
The sun distorted himself into a Rugby football, and hurried downas though to be through with Fairfield as soon as possible. It wasa most magnificent sun-set; flaming, gorgeous, wild--beyond themanagement of the women of Fairfield--and Miss Mattie stared intothe heart of it with a longing for something to happen. Then thethought came, "What could happen?" she sighed again, and, with eyesblinded by Heaven-shine, glanced down the village street.
She thought she saw--she rubbed her eyes and looked again--she didsee, and surely never a stranger sight was beheld on Fairfield'sstreet! Had a Royal Bengal tiger come slouching through the dustit could not have been more unusual. The spectacle was a man; avery large and mighty shouldered man, who looked about him with abold, imperious, keep-the-change regard. There was something inthe swing of him that suggested the Bengal tiger. He worehigh-heeled boots outside of his trousers, a flannel shirt with ayellow silk kerchief around his neck, and on his head sat a whitehat which seemed to Miss Mattie to be at least a yard in diameter.Under the hat was a remarkable head of hair. It hung below theman's shoulders in a silky mass of dark scarlet, flecked with browngold. Miss Mattie had seen red hair, but she remembered no suchcolor as this, nor could she recall ever having seen hair afoot-and-a-half long on a man. That hair would have made a fortuneon the head of an actress, but Miss Mattie was ignorant of thepossibilities of the profession.
The face of the man was a fine tan, against which eyes, teeth, andmoustache came out in brisk relief. The moustache avoided thetropical tint of the upper hair and was content with a modestbrown. The owner came right along, walking with a stiff, strong,straddling gait, like a man not used to that way of travelling.
Miss Mattie eyed him in some fear. He would be by her housedirectly, and it was hardly modest to sit aggressively on one'sfront porch, while a strange man went by--particularly, such a verystrange man as this! Yet a thrill of curiosity held her for themoment, and then it was too late, for the man stopped and askedlittle Eddie Newell, who was playing placidly in the dust--all thechildren played placidly in Fairfield--asked Eddie, in a voicewhich reached Miss Mattie plainly, although the owner evidentlymade no attempt to raise it, if he knew where Miss Mattie Saunderslived?
Eddie had not noticed the large man's approach, and nearly fellover in a fright; but seeing, with a child's intuition, that therewas no danger in this fierce-looking person, he piped up instantly.
"Y-y-yessir!--I kin tell yer where she lives--Yessir! She livesright down there in that little house--I kin go down with you jes'swell 's not! Why, there she is now, on the stoop!"
"Thankee sonny," said the big voice. "Here's for miggles," andMiss Mattie caught the sparkle of a coin as it flew into the grimyfists of Eddie.
"Much obliged!" yelled Eddie and vanished up the street.
Miss Mattie sat transfixed. Her breath came in swallows and herheart beat irregularly. Here was novelty with a vengeance! Thebig man turned and fastened his eyes upon her. There was noretreat. She noticed with some reassurance that his eyes weregrave and kindly.
As he advanced Miss Mattie rose in agitation, unconsciously puttingher h
and on her throat--what could it mean?
The gate was opened and the stranger strode up the cinder walk tothe porch. He stopped a whole minute and looked at her. At last.
"Well, Mattie!" he said, "don't you know me?"
A flood of the wildest hypotheses flashed through Miss Mattie'smind without enlightening her. Who was this picturesque giant whostepped out of the past with so familiar a salutation? Althoughthe porch was a foot high, and Miss Mattie a fairly tall woman,their eyes were almost on a level, as she looked at him in wonder.
Then he laughed and showed his white teeth. "No use to bother andworry you, Mattie," said he, "you couldn't call it in ten years.Well, I'm your half-uncle Fred's boy Bill--and I hope you're aquarter as glad to see me as I am to see you."
"What!" she cried. "Not little Willy who ran away!"
"The same little Willy," he replied in a tone that made Miss Mattielaugh a little, nervously, "and what I want to know is, are youglad to see me?"
"Why, of course! But, Will--I suppose I should call you Will? Iam so flustered--not expecting you--and it's been so warm to-day.Won't you come in and take a chair?" wound up Miss Mattie indesperation, and fury at herself for saying things so differentfrom what she meant to say.
There was a twinkle in the man's eye as he replied in an injuredtone:
"Why, good Lord, Mattie! I've come two thousand miles or more tosee you, and you ask me to take a chair. Just as if I'd stepped infrom across the way! Can't you give a man a little warmer welcomethan that?"
"What shall I do?" asked poor Miss Mattie.
"Well, you might kiss me, for a start," said he.
Miss Mattie was all abroad--still one's half-cousin, who has comesuch a distance, and been received so very oddly, is entitled toconsideration. She raised her agitated face, and for the firsttime in her life realised the pleasure of wearing a moustache.
Then Red Saunders, late of the Chanta Seeche Ranch, North Dakota,sat him down.
"I'm obliged to you, Mattie," he said in all seriousness. "To tellyou the truth, I felt in need of a little comforting--here I'vecome all this distance--and, of course, I _heard_ about father andmother--but I couldn't believe it was true. Seemed as if they_must_ be waiting at the old place for me to come back, and when Isaw it all gone to ruin--Well, then I set out to find somebody, anddo you know, of all the family, there's only you and me left?That's all, Mattie, just us two!--whilst I was growing up out West,I kind of expected things to be standing still back here, and bejust the same as I left them--hum--Well, how are you anyhow?"
"I'm well, Will, and"--laying her hand upon his, "_don't_ think I'mnot glad to see you--_please_ don't. I'm so glad, Will, I can'ttell you--but I'm all confused--so little happens here."
"I shouldn't guess it was the liveliest place in the world, by thelook of it," said Red. "And as far as that's concerned, I kinderdon't know what to say myself. There's such a heap to talk aboutit's hard to tell where to begin--but we've got to be friendsthough, Mattie--we've just _got_ to be friends. Good Lord! We'reall there's left! Funny, I never thought of such a thing! Well,blast it! That's enough of such talk! I've brought you a present,Mattie." He stretched out a leg that reached beyond the limits ofthe front porch, and dove into his trousers pocket, bringing out abuck-skin sack. He fumbled at the knot a minute and then passed itover saying, "You untie it--your fingers are soopler than mine,"Miss Mattie's fingers were shaking, but the knots finally cameundone, and from the sack she brought forth a chain of rich, dullyellow lumps, fashioned into a necklace. It weighed a pound. Shespread it out and looked at it astounded. "Gracious, Will! Isthat _gold_?" she asked.
"That's what," he replied. "The real article, just as it came outof the ground: I dug it myself. That's the reason I'm here. I'dnever got money enough to go anywheres further than a horse couldcarry me if I hadn't taken a fly at placer mining and hit her tobeat h--er--the very mischief."
Miss Mattie looked first at the barbaric, splendid necklace andthen at the barbaric, splendid man. Things grew confused beforeher in trying to realise that it was real. What two planets soseparated in their orbits as her world and his? She had theimagination that is usually lacking in small communities, and thefeeling of a fairy story come true, possessed her.
"And now, Mattie," said he, "I don't know what's manners in thispart of the country, but I'll make free enough on the cousin partof it to tell you that I could look at some supper withoutflinching. I've walked a heap to-day, and I ain't used to walking."
Miss Mattie sprang up, herself again at the chance to offerhospitality.
"Why, you poor man!" said she. "Of course you're starved! It mustbe nearly eight o'clock! I almost forget about eating, living herealone. You shall have supper directly. Will you come in or sit aspell outside?"
"Reckon I'll come in," said Red. "Don't want to lose sight of younow that I've found you."
It was some time since Miss Mattie had felt that anyone had caredenough for her not to want to lose sight of her, and a delicatewarm bloom went over her cheeks. She hurried into the littlekitchen.
"Mattie!" called Red.
"What is it, Will?" she answered, coming to the door.
"Can I smoke in this little house?"
"Cer--tainly! Sit right down and make yourself comfortable. Don'tyou remember what a smoker father was?"
Red tried the different chairs with his hand. They were not astalwart lot. Finally he spied the home-made rocker in the corner."There's the lad for me," he said, drawing it out. "Got to bekinder careful how you throw two-hundred-fifty pounds around."
"Mercy!" cried Miss Mattie, pan in hand. "Do you weigh as much asthat, Will?"
"I do," returned Red, with much satisfaction. "And there isn'tover two pounds of it fat at that."
"What a great man you have grown up to be, Will!"
Red took in a deep draught of tobacco and sent the vapor clearacross the little room.
"On the hay-scales, yes," he answered, with a sort of jokingearnestness--"but otherwise, I don't know."
The return to the old home had touched the big man deeply, and ashe leaned back in his chair there was a shade of melancholy on hisface that became it well.
Miss Mattie took in the mass of him stretched out at his ease, hislegs crossed, and the patrician cut of his face, to which theupturned moustache gave a cavalier touch. They were good stock,the Saunders, and the breed had not declined in the only two extant.
"He's my own cousin!" she whispered to herself, in the safety ofthe kitchen. "And such a splendid looking man!" She felt a prideof possession she had never known before. Nobody in Fairfield orvicinity had such a cousin as that. And Miss Mattie went onjoyfully fulfilling an inherited instinct to minister to the wantsof some man. She said to herself there was some satisfaction incooking for somebody else. But alack-a-day, Miss Mattie's ideas ofthe wants of somebody else had suffered a Fairfield change.Nothing was done on a large scale in Fairfield. But she sat thelittle cakes--lucky that she had made them yesterday--and the friedmush, and the small pitcher of milk, and the cold ham, and the coldbiscuit on the table with a pride in the appearance of the feast.
"Supper's ready, Will," said she.
Red responded instanter. Took a look at the board and understood.He ate the little cakes and biscuit, and said they were the durnedbest he ever tasted. He also took some pot-cheese under amisapprehension; swallowed it, and said to himself that he had beenthrough worse things than that. Then, when his appetite had justbegun to develop, the inroads on the provisions warned him that itwas time to stop. Meanwhile they had ranged the fields of oldtimes at random, and as Red took in Miss Mattie, pink withexcitement and sparkling as to eyes, he thought, "Blast the supper!It's a square meal just to look at her. If she ain't pretty goodpeople, I miss my guess."
It was a merry meal. He had such a way of telling things! MissMattie hadn't laughed so much for years, and she felt that therewas no one that she had known so long and so well as Cousin
Will.There was only one jarring note. Red spoke of the vigorouscelebration that had been followed by the finding of gold. It wascertainly well told, but Miss Mattie asked in soft horror when hehad finished, "You didn't get--_intoxicated_--Will?"
"DID I?" said he, lost in memory, and not noticing the tone."Well, I put my hand down the throat of that man's town, and turnedher inside out! It was like as if Christmas and Fourth of July hadhappened on the same day."
"Oh, Will!" cried Miss Mattie, "I can't think of you likethat--rolling in the gutter." Her voice shook and broke off. Herknowledge of the effect of stimulants was limited to Fairfield'sone drunkard--old Tommy McKee, a disreputable old Irishman--butdrunkenness was the worst vice in her world.
"Rolling in the gutter!" cried Red, in astonishment. "Why girl!What for would I roll in the gutter? What's the fun in that?Jiminy Christmas! I wanted to walk on the telegraph wires--therewasn't anything in that town high enough for me--what put guttersinto your head?"
"I--I supposed people did that when they were--like that."
"I wouldn't waste my money on whisky, if that's all the inspirationI got out of it," replied Red.
"Well, of course I don't know about those things, but I wish you'dpromise me one thing."
"Done!" cried Red. "What is it?"
"I wish you'd promise me not to touch whisky again!"
"Phew! That's a pretty big order!" He stopped and thought aminute. "If you'll make that 'never touch it when it ain'tneeded,' leaving when it's needed to what's my idea of the squarething on a promise, I'll go you, Mattie--there's my hand."
"Oh, I shouldn't have said anything at all, Will! I have no right.But it seemed such a pity such a splendid man--I mean--I think--.You mustn't promise me anything, Will," stammered Miss Mattie,shocked at her own daring.
"Here!" he cried, "I'm no little kid! When I promise I mean it!As for your not having any right, ain't we all there is? You'vegot to be mother and sister and aunt and everything to me. I ain'tas young as I have been, Mattie, and I miss she-ways terrible attimes. Now put out your fin like a good pardner, and here goes forno more rhinecaboos for Chantay Seeche Red--time I quit drinking,anyhow," he slipped a ring off his little finger. "Here, hold outyour hand," said he, "I'll put this on for luck, and the sake ofthe promise--by the same token, I've got a noose on you now, andyou're my property."
This, of course, was only Cousin Will's joking, but Miss Mattienoticed with a sudden hot flush, that he had chosen the engagementfinger--in all ignorance, she felt sure. The last thing she coulddo would be to call his attention to the fact, or run the risk ofhurting his feelings by transferring the ring; besides, it was apretty ring--a rough ruby in a plain gold band--and looked verywell where it was.
Then they settled down for what Red called a good medicine talk.Miss Mattie found herself boldly speaking of little fancies andnotions that had remained in the inner shrine of her soul foryears, shrinking from the matter-of-fact eye of Fairfield; yet thisbig, ferocious looking Cousin Will seemed to find them both saneand interesting, and as her self-respect went up in thearithmetical, her admiration for Cousin Will went up in thegeometrical ratio. He frankly admitted weaknesses and fears thatthe males of Fairfield would have rejected scornfully.
Miss Mattie spoke of sleeping upstairs, because she could not ridherself of the fear of somebody coming in.
"I know just how you feel about that," said Red. "My hair used tobe on its feet most of the time when we were in the hay camp at thelake beds. Gee whizz! The rattlers! We put hair ropesaround--but them rattlers liked to squirm over hair ropes forexercise. One morning I woke up and there was a crawler on mychest. 'For God's sake, Pete!' says I to Antelope Pete, who wasrolled up next me, 'come take my friend away!' and I didn't hollervery loud, neither. Pete was chain lightning in pants, and hegrabs Mr. Rattler by the tail and snaps his neck, but I feltlonesome in my inside till dinner time. You bet! I know just howyou feel, exactly. I didn't have a man's sized night's rest whilstwe was in that part of the country."
It struck Miss Mattie that the cases were hardly parallel. "Arattlesnake on your chest, Will!" she cried, with her hands claspedin terror.
"Oh! it wasn't as bad as it sounds--he was asleep--coiled up thereto get warm--sharpish nights on the prairie in August--but darn it!Mattie!" wrinkling up his nose in disgust, "I hate the sight of thebrutes!"
"But you wouldn't be afraid of a man, Will!"
"Well, no," admitted he. "I've never been troubled much that way.You see, everybody has a different fear to throw a crimp in them.Mine's rattlesnakes and these little bugs with forty million pairsof legs. I pass right out when I see one of them things. Theygive me a feeling as if my stummick had melted."
"Weren't the Indians terrible out there, too?" asked Miss Mattie."I'm sure they must have been."
"Oh, they ain't bad people if you use 'em right," said Red. "Notthat I like 'em any better on the ground, than in it," he addedhastily, fearful of betraying the sentiment of his country, "but Inever had but one real argument, man to man. Black Wolf and I cometogether over a matter of who owned my cayuse, and from words webacked off and got to shooting. He raked me from knee to hip, as Iwas kneeling down, doing the best I could by him, and wastingammunition because I was in a hurry. Still, I did bust his ankle.In the middle of the fuss a stray shot hit the cayuse in the headand he croaked without a remark, so there we were, a pair of foolsmiles from home with nothing left to quarrel about! You could havefried an egg on a rock that day, and it always makes you thirsty toget shot anyways serious, thinking of which I hollered peace to oldBlack Wolf and told him I'd pull straws with him to see who took mycanteen down to the creek and got some fresh water. He wasagreeable and we hunched up to each other. It ain't to my creditto say it, but I was worse hurt than that Injun, so I worked him.He got the short straw, and had to crawl a mile through cactus,while I sat comfortable on the cause of the disagreement and yelledto him that he looked like a badger, and other things that an Injunwouldn't feel was a compliment." Red leaned back and roared. "Ican see him now putting his hands down so careful, and turning backevery once in awhile to cuss me. Turned out that it was hiscayuse, too. Feller that sold it to me had stole it from him. Ioughtn't to laugh over it, but I can't help but snicker when Ithink how I did that Injun."
Generally speaking, Miss Mattie had a lively sense of humour, butthe joke of this was lost on her. Her education had been thatgetting shot was far from funny.
"Why, I should have thought you would have died, Will!"
"What! For a little crack in the leg!" cried Red, with someimpatience. "You people must quit easy in this country. Dienothin'. One of our boys came along and took us to camp, and wewas up and doing again in no time. 'Course, Black Wolf has a gameleg for good, but the worst that's stuck to me is a yank or two ofrheumatism in the rainy season. I paid Wolf for his cayuse," hefinished shamefacedly. "I had the laugh on him anyhow."
Miss Mattie told him she thought that was noble of him, whichtribute Red took as medicine, and shifted the subject with speed,to practical affairs. He asked Miss Mattie how much money she hadand how she managed to make out. Now, it was one of the canons ofgood manners in Fairfield not to speak of material matters--perhapsbecause there was so little material matter in the community, butMiss Mattie, doomed to a thousand irksome petty economies, hadoften longed for a sympathetic ear, to pour into it a good honestcomplaint of hating to do this and that. She could not exactly gothis far with Cousin Will, but she could say that it was prettyhard to get along, and give some details. She felt that she knewhim so very well, in those few hours! Red heard with nods ofassent. He had scented the conditions at once.
"It ain't any fun, skidding on the thin ice," said he, when theyhad concluded the talk. "I've had to count the beans I put in thepot, and it made me hate arithmetic worse than when I went overyonder to school. Well, them days have gone by for you, Mattie."He reached down and pulling out a green roll, slapped it on thecentre table. "Blo
w that in, and limber up, and remember thatthere's more behind it."
Miss Mattie's pride rose at a leap.
"Will!" she said, "I hope you don't think I've told you this to getmoney from you?"
He leaned forward, put his hand on her shoulder and held her eyeswith a sudden access of sternness and authority.
"And I hope, Mattie," said he, "that you don't think that I thinkanything of the kind?"
The cousins stared into each other's eyes for a full minute. ThenMiss Mattie spoke. "No, Will," said she, "I don't believe you do."
"I shouldn't think I did," retorted Red. "What in thunder would Ido with all that money? Why, good Lord, girl, I could paper yourhouse with ten-dollar bills--now you try to fly them green kites,like I tell you."
Miss Mattie broke down, the not fully realised strain of fifteenyears had made itself felt when the cord snapped. "I don't knowhow to thank you. I don't know what to say. Oh, William! it seemstoo good to be true."
"What you crying about, Mattie?" said he in sore distress. "Nowhold on! Listen to me a minute! There's something I want you todo for me."
"What is it?" she asked, drying her eyes. "For dinner to-morrow,"he replied, "let's have a roast of beef about that size,"indicating a wash-tub.
The diversion was complete.
"Why, Will! What would we ever do with it?" said she.
"Do with it? Why, eat it!"
"But we couldn't eat all that!"
"Then throw what's left to the cats. You ain't going to fall downon me the first favour I ask?" with mock seriousness.
"You shall have the roast of beef. 'Pears to me that you're fondof your stomach, Will," said Miss Mattie, with a recovering smile.
"I have a good stomach, that's always done the right thing by me,when I've done the right thing by _it_," said Red. "And moreover,just look at the constitution I have to support. But say, oldlady, look at that!" pointing to the clock. "Eleven-thirty; timedecent people were putting up for the night."
The words brought to an acute stage a wandering fear which hadpassed through Miss Mattie's mind at intervals during the evening.Where was she to look for sleeping accommodations for a man? Sherevolted against the convention, that, in her own mind, as well asthe rest of Fairfield, forbade the use of her house for thepurpose. Long habit of thought had made these nicetiesconstitutional. It was almost as difficult for Miss Mattie to say"I'll fix up your bed right there on the sofa" as it would havebeen for Red to pick a man's pocket, yet, when she thought of hisinstant and open generosity and what a dismal return therefor itwould be to thrust him out for reasons which she divined would haveno meaning for him, she heroically resolved to throw custom to thewinds, and speak.
But the difficulty was cut in another fashion.
"There's a little barn in the back-yard that caught my eye," saidRed, "and if you'll lend me a blanket I'll roll it out there."
"Sleep in the barn! You'll not do any such thing!" cried MissMattie. "You'll sleep right here on the sofa, or upstairs in mybed, just as you choose."
"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not. So help me Bob! I'dsmother in here. Had the darnedest time coming on that everwas--hotels. Little white rooms with the walls coming in on you.Worse than rattlesnakes for keeping a man awake. Reminds me of thehospital. Horse fell on me once and smashed me up so that I had tobe sent to get puttied up again, and I never struck such a month asthat since I was born. The doc. told me I mustn't move, but I toldhim I'd chuck him out of the window if he tried to stop me, and upI got. I'd have gone dead sure if they'd held me a week more. Ispeak for the barn, Mattie, and I speak real loud; that is, I meanto say I'm going to sleep in the barn, unless there's somebody aheap larger than you on the premises. Now, there's no use for youto talk--I'm going to do just as I say."
"Well, I think that's just dreadful!" said Miss Mattie. "I'd liketo know what folks will think of me to hear I turned my own cousinout in the barn." Her voice trailed off a little at the end as thegist of what they might say if he stayed in the house, occurred toher. "Well," she continued, "if you're set, I suppose I can'tobject." Miss Mattie was not a good hand at playing a part.
"I'm set," said Red. "Get me a blanket." As she came in with this,he added, "Say, Mattie, could you let me have a loaf of bread?I've got a habit of wanting something to eat in the middle of thenight."
"Certainly! Don't you want some butter with it? Here, I'll fix itfor you on a plate."
"No, don't waste dish-washing--I'll show you how to fix it." Hecut the loaf of bread in half, pulled out a portion of the softpart and filled the hole with butter. "There we are, and nothingto bother with afterwards."
"That's a right smart notion, Will--but you'll want a knife."
In answer he drew out a leather case from his breast pocket andopened it. Within was knife, fork, spoon and two flat boxes forsalt and pepper. "You see I'm fixed," said he.
"Isn't that a cute trick!" she cried admiringly. "You're ready formost anything."
"Sure," said Red. "Now, good night, old lady!" He bent down in sonatural a fashion that Miss Mattie had kissed him before she knewwhat she was going to do.
Down to the barn, through the soft June evening, went Red,whistling a Mexican love song most melodiously.
Miss Mattie stood in the half-opened door and listened. Withoutwas balm and starlight and the spirit of flowers, breathed out inodours. The quaint and pretty tune rose and fell, quavered, liltedalong as it listed without regard for law and order. It struckMiss Mattie to the heart. Her girlhood, with its misty dreams ofhappiness, came back to her on the wings of music.
"Isn't that a sweet tune," she said, with a lump in her throat.
She went up into her room and sat down a moment in confusion,trying to grasp the reality of all that had happened. In themiddle of the belief that these things were not so, came the regretof a sensitive mind for errors committed. She remembered with asudden sinking, that she had not thanked him for the necklace--andthe money lay even now on the parlor table, where he had cast it!This added the physical fear of thieves. Down she went and got themoney, counted out, to her unmitigated astonishment, five hundreddollars and thrust it beneath her pillow with a shiver. She wishedshe had thought to tell him to take care of it--but suppose thethieves were to fall on him as he slept? Red's friends would havespent their sympathy on the thieves. She rejoiced that the moneywas where it was. Then she tried to remember what she had saidthroughout the evening.
"Well, I suppose I must have acted like a ninny," she concluded."But isn't he just splendid!" and as Cousin Will's handsome face,with its daring, kind eyes, came to her vision she felt comforted."I don't believe but what he'll make every allowance for howexcited I was," said she. "He seems to understand those things,for all he's such a large man. Well, it doesn't seem as if itcould be true." With a half sigh Miss Mattie knelt and sent up hermodest petition to her Maker and got into her little white bed.
In the meantime Red's actions would have awakened suspicion. Hehunted around until he found a tin can, then lit a match andrummaged the barn, amid terror-stricken squawks from theinhabitants, the hens.
"One, two, three, four," he counted. "Reckon I can last out tillmorning on that. Mattie, she's white people--just the nicest Iever saw, but she ain't used to providing for a full-grown man."
He stepped to the back of the barn and looked about him. "Nobodycan see me from here," he said, in satisfaction. Then he scrapedtogether a pile of chips and sticks and built a fire, filled thetin can at the brook, sat it on two stones over the fire, rolledhimself a cigarette and waited. A large, yellow tom-cat came outof the brush and threw his green headlights on him, meaowingtentatively.
"Hello, pussy!" said Red. "You hungry too? Well, just wait aminute, and we'll help that feeling--like bread, pussy?" The catgobbled the morsel greedily, came closer and begged for more. Thetin can boiled over. Red popped the eggs in, puffed his cigaretteto a bright coal, and looked at his watch by the lig
ht. "Gee! Tenminutes more, now!" said he. "Hardly seems to me as if I couldwait." He pulled the watch out several times. "What's the matterwith the damn thing? I believe it's stopped," he growled. But atlast "Time!" he shouted gleefully, kicked the can over and gatheredup its treasures in his handkerchief.
"Now, Mr. Cat, we're going to do some real eating," said he. "Justsit right down and make yourself at home--this is kind of fun, byJinks!" Down went the eggs and down went the loaf of bread ingenerous slices, never forgetting a fair share for the cat.
"Woosh! I feel better!" cried Red, "and now for some sleep." Heswung up into the hay-loft, spread the blanket on the stillfragrant old hay, and rolled himself up in a trice.
"I did a good turn when I came on here," he mused. "If I have gotonly one relation, she's a dandy--so pretty and quiet and nice.She's a marker for all I've got, is Mattie."
The cat came up, purring and "making bread." He sniffed felinefashion at Red's face.
"Foo! Shoo! Go 'way, pussy! Settle yourself down and we'll poundour ear for another forty miles. I like you first rate when youdon't walk on my face." He stretched and yawned enormously. "Yessir! Mattie's all right," said he. "A-a-a-ll ri-" and ChantaySeeche Red was in the land of dreams. Here, back in God's country,within twenty miles of the place where he was born, the wandererlaid him down again, and in spite of raid and foray, whisky andpoker-cards, wear-and-tear, hard times, and hardest test of all,sudden fortune, he was much the same impulsive, honest, generous,devil-may-care boy who had left there twenty-four years ago.