Читать книгу The Gayworthys - Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney - Страница 18

Any one who had been by chance in the shadow of fence or bush by the lonely roadside, upon a certain August morning, as Eben Hatch came riding back from errands to the blacksmith's, and at the village store and post-office at the Bridge, would have seen something funny and rather unaccountable. If Eben had been ten years old, instead of six-and-twenty, and if it had been in the previous knowledge of the looker-on that one of those perambulating caravans of wonders, human and zoological, that make their appearance at certain intervals in our quiet New England villages, to set all the urchin's brains a madding, and their bodies more often than otherwise upside down, and to paper, gratis, with bright, monstrous pictured placards, bar-rooms, and offices, and variety shops, had recently sojourned at the Bridge,—he might have thought he understood the secret impulse of the mysterious and comical evolutions he would have so beheld.

Old Clumsy jogged on, in a mild, dignified imperturbability; perhaps it was a virtue born of necessity, like the middle-aged propriety of some humans, under otherwise exhilarating circumstances; they would have been queer antics, indeed, that her old muscles could have executed; while Eben, upon her back, the bridle dropped loosely upon her mane, an unfolded letter in his right hand, was giving vent to some unwonted internal excitement in a series of gymnastics that one would think could only have been learned in the Ring.

Now with a long, wide-mouthed cachinnation, he flung himself, backward, till his shoulders all but touched the horse's croup; then, flourishing his arms with a wild exultation, he bounded up and down in his saddle; and, presently, with a sudden "haw-haw," as if the overwhelming joke, whatever it might be, made itself abruptly palpable in a new and utterly irresistible aspect, performed a "right-about face" unheard-of in cavalry tactics, and set his sunburnt nose in the direction of Clumsy's scraggy and wondering tail. Resting but an instant, however, in this position, he made a right-face again, bringing himself round with both legs dangling at the beast's near side; and here, pushing his straw hat up with both hands, in one of which the letter still rustled, scratched his sunbrowned locks, and with the unsubsided grin of delight yet broadening his honest face, gave enigmatic utterance to the conclusion of this ecstasy of inspiration—

"Hooray! That'll do! That'll fetch it! I'll be—buttered—if it won't!"

And resuming his masculine straddle, he stuffed the missive into his trousers' pocket, and seizing the leathern bridle, strapped Clumsy's neck therewith, rather as a mild easing-off for his own effervescent spirits, than in any hope of altering a gait sublimely unaffected by all that had foregone.

When he arrived at home, having ridden in by the lane, and left his horse at the barn, Huldah was out among the "groves." You know what I mean, of course: among the lines of wet sheets and table-cloths in the clothes-yard; it being washing-day. Eben could see her stout-shod feet, and comely ankles cased in gray below the snowy drop-scenes; and, above, her brown hair ruffled by the breeze, and a bit of flushed forehead, as she struggled with with the flapping linen; for the mountain wind was vigorous.

He wisely withheld the greeting he had ready. Without any theory about it, he had got hold of this bit of practical knowledge; a good nest-egg of everyday wisdom for a man to begin life with. Women are concentrative in their natures. They bend their force upon one point at a time, and that intensely, after the manner of a blow-pipe. Huldah, with a clothes-pin between her teeth, might give an answer from the right or wrong side, as should happen. Large-hearted and happy natured, she would never sharpen or narrow to vixenishness; and yet she had the little distinctive ways of her sex, for all. So Eben looked at her as he went by, reserving his fire; and passed on into the out-room, where he found his brown bread and apple-pie and cheese put up and waiting for him in a bright tin pail; and taking this in his hand, turned off again, marching away to his field work, a secretly exultant man, with his coup-d'état in his pocket.

All day long it lay there, giving him boldness and strength. For the most part. A momentary reaction would come, now and then, of a doubt that struck him like a sudden blow with the thought, "What if it shouldn't work, after all?" It was his last shot. Well, if it missed, he would know at any rate where he was, and which way to beat retreat; the fight would be over.

"I've got some news for you, Huldy," he said, as the maiden served him with his late dinner, on his return from the distant field. She looked rosy and pretty enough, after her cosmetics of vapor and breeze, in her tidy out-room, where the clothes dried from the wash lay heaped up, white and rustling, and odorous of sweet cleanliness, in broad willow baskets; her hair smoothed and a clean calico gown on, and a smiling grace of readiness upon her as she fetched the viands from the pantry; her energy concentered now on Eben's comfort, and secretly, upon making the most of this, their little hour of rest and companionship.

"I've got some news for you. But I guess 't 'll keep."

"Not such a great while, I'll be bound; if it depends on you. Good or bad?"

"Well, that's as you take it. Kinder middlin'. I'll tell yer to-night, when I come in from the chores. Hain't got time now. It's consider'ble of a story."

Huldah looked at him over one shoulder, as she went into the cheese-room. There was a sparkle of determination in his eye, and a certain air of delayed triumph about him, as he spoke, that gave her a sudden thought of possible personal application in this story that should be coming.

"He's goin' to be more redick'lous than ever. That's what it is. And he thinks he's so mighty cunnin' about it. We'll see," and Huldah sparkled too, with feminine mischief, and made a pretty bit of picture, that nobody beheld, lit with gleams from under the dark eyelashes, and from between the ruddy lips, as she laughed to herself over the great sage-cheese from which she was cutting a generous wedge.

Eben ate and chuckled; and watched Huldah in and out and round the room, as if she were a little bird on which he could put a cat's paw at any moment. Huldah hopped tamely enough, but felt her wings stealthily and kept every feather trimmed and ready for a sudden unfurling.

"Concernin' whom?" she asked, abruptly, after a long pause, filled only by such pantomime.

"Oh, the news! You're thinkin' of that yet, are ye? Well, concernin' me, mostly. Donno's anybody else'll care about it. May make some difference to the Doctor. I'll tell yer to-night. Yer'll want me to help stretch them sheets, I 'spose?"

Huldah wasn't quite so merry and comfortable after Eben went out, leaving her to clear up the dishes, and ruminate upon his words. "Difference to the Doctor?" Could it be that somebody was enticing him away from his old place with higher wages? Well, if Eben could be mean enough to give in to that, he might go. There'd be no trusting him in anything. Huldah was quite angry at this imagination. And even when she had mentally repudiated it, as impossible, the mischief came no more back to eye and lip. The mystery might be perplexing, but it was no longer funny. She was off the scent again, and off her guard. So much the better for Eben.

After sundown, when the chores were through, and the milk strained and set away, they took up the little scene, where they had broken it off.

Huldah had been sprinkling. All the small articles lay piled in neat, white rolls upon her fair deal table, and only sheets and table-linen lay waiting in the big basket, for Eben, as he always did, to help her "stretch." His rough hands were scrupulously clean for the operation; a weekly treat, which made Monday evening no less a blessed epoch to be looked forward to by the simple country lover, than the time-honored Sunday, when rural swains have traditional privilege to get themselves up in their best, and be, otherwise, as "redick'lous" as may please them. And he felt so strong to-night, with this foreclosure of the long mortgage he had held on Huldah's heart, lying snugly in his pocket!

"Well, Huldy, I s'pose yer achin' to know?" This, as he gathered up in his hands, deftly enough for a man, the folded end of the sheet Huldah offered him, she walking off at the same time, with her own, to take her stand opposite.

"Folks that are in tribulation themselves, never see how anybody else can be feelin' easy," retorted Huldah, turning about and taking the cloth by the double corners. "Now, then, snap!"

Up went their arms, in admirable precision, each pair of hands uniting themselves, to be flung apart and downward, with a sudden jerk, and a mighty concussion of the bellying web against the air.

Huldah felt her power, and her courage with it.

There was something illustrative in this little labor-pastime of theirs,—something suggestive in its likeness to their daily ways of going on, and what these were at last to come to. There must be just so many snaps, first of all; little hearty measurements of mutual strength and dexterity; then came the gathering up in earnest, for the 'pull' when each drew away, apparently, with all force, from the other, yet taking care, the while, to hold stoutly by the good bond between, lest either failing, should so get the worst of it; then the final folding, bringing them nearer and nearer, hand to hand, till they stood close, at last, face to face, with their shared and lightened work between them. Eben felt the secret significance and symbolism, every Monday twilight of his life, though if the clumsy fellow had tried to put it into words, he would never assuredly, have "fetched it."

"If it'll be any relief to your mind, speak out," says Huldah, again.

Snap!

"Oh, it's not much," rejoins Eben, his arms going up for the third time.

Snap!

"Only,—" gathering up for the tug,—"I got a letter, again, this morning, from my cousin out in Illinois."

A long pull,—a pull together,—and a pause; a little twitch, maybe, of anxiety between the two hearts, as well.

"And he wants me to come out there, and settle down."

Another strain, as if each would tear away from the other, almost in anger; only for the something, woven too strong, that held them bound, and that neither would let go.

"And,—I've pretty much made up my mind—when the crops are all in—to go."

It was time for the third pull; but one end gave way, suddenly. Huldah's arms fell, and Eben tumbled up, ingloriously, against the cheese-room door. Must a conqueror necessarily look grand and graceful, in the actual moment of victory?

Huldah laughed; but it was an odd little laugh,—her lips all a-quiver.

They gave the third pull in silence, somewhat feebly, as must needs be; a truer, mightier impulse counter-current to will and muscle, urging them, rather, to each other's arms. Then they began to fold. Meeting midway, the man, the victor, looked down, without a word, upon the eyes that shrouded themselves beneath proud, half-angry, trembling lids. They felt the magnetism, and flashed up.

"All the way out there?" says she, the vanquished, with a voice of tears. "Alone?"

"No, by thunder, Huldy! Not if you'll go with me!" And the strong arms seized and held her. "Consider'ble of a story" had concentrated all its essence, by a heart-chemistry, into a few pungent words. The white folds fell to the floor. There was no interposition. Eben had "fetched it."

A day or two after, Joanna stood in her chamber, with a new bonnet in her hand; just sent from Selport. Pretty enough; but what use now? A woman has but one use for all her thousand little fripperies; to please the eyes she loves.

Joanna fingered, idly, the ribbons. All the family had seen and admired it. Now it was going back into its box. She wondered if she should ever care to put it on.

Steps came up the stairs; Huldah showed herself, unwontedly, at the door; her face full of something she had to say. So full, evidently, that she could not quite easily begin; so she stood and rolled a corner of her apron.

Joanna looked up, in somewhat surprised inquiry.

"That's a dreadful pretty bunnet," says Huldah; much as if that were not the thing, either.

Joanna wondered what strange fit of idleness and folly had come over the brisk and busy handmaid.

"I hate to be too curious, Joanna;" the girl resumed, a little desperately; "but would you mind tellin' me what they ask you for such a bunnet as that, down to Selport?"

"Nine dollars," replied Joanna, quietly, and marveled again within herself, what next?

Everything else, however, seemed frightened out of Huldah's head at that amazing statement. She stood still, and looked at Joanna, with eyes that appeared as if they never would wink again. As if at least, were there any exaggeration in this, they meant to see through it first. Evidently, however, Joanna intended simply what she had said. She was busying herself with a little bending of the flowers, and a little perking of the ribbons,—I suppose a woman would do this, mechanically, though she were about to lay away the finery forever, for the sake of a life-long grief befallen her,—and gave not a glance after her words, to note their effect.

"Nine dullars! Well, they ain't bashful, down there, be they? Not the least mite!"

Now, Joanna did look up, and laugh. "Why, Huldah," she said, "What is it? Did you think of sending to Selport for a bonnet?"

"Well, no,—I donno's I did; I wasn't thinkin' decidedly of anything. Only I 'spose I might as well be pricin' things a little. I've got to do some fixin' up before the fall. You see,"—she continued, hesitatingly, "I never calculated to live out, all my life. I've had a real pleasant home here, that's a fact; an' you and Rebecca, and Mis' Vorse, an' the Doctor, has been just like my own folks to me. But everybody likes a little change of some kind, now and then; and Ebenezer, he's got to be so redick'lous,—I don't see's there's any other way of pacifyin' him; and so—I've pretty much made up my mind—to get married and try that awhile!"

These two brief little scenes, homely and absurd in the letter of their enactment, yet sweet and grand in spirit, with the blossoming of happy love and faithful purpose, forever the one, identical, divinely-beautiful thing in human hearts and lives,—decided and announced it all. After the crops were in,—a couple of months, or little more, hence,—Huldah and Eben were to take each other by the hand, and go. Changes were to begin at the Gayworthy farm. Who might guess what should come next?

Meantime, they had their own kite to fly, now; and there was nothing to remind them that they had ever helped to tie a bob to the tail of anybody's else.