The Tinder-Box

by Maria Thompson Daviess

  CHAPTER VI

  MAX AND THE ASAFETIDA SPOON

  I do wish the great man who is discovering how to put people into somesort of metaphysical pickle that will suspend their animations until hegets ready to wake them up, would hurry up with his investigations, sohe can catch Sallie before she begins to fade or wilt. Sallie, just asshe is, brought to life about five generations from now, would cause asensation.

  Some women are so feminine that they are sticky, unless well spiced withdeviltry. Sallie's loveliness hasn't much seasoning. Still, I do loveher dearly, and I am just as much her slave as are any of the others. Ican't get out of it.

  "Do you suppose we will ever get all of the clothes done for the twins?"Nell sighed gently as we sat on my porch whipping yards of lace uponwhite ruffles and whipping up our own spirits at the same time.Everybody in Glendale sews for Sallie's children and it takes her allher time to think up the clothes.

  "Never," I answered.

  "She's coming, and I do believe she has got more of this ruffling. I seeit floating down her skirt," Nell fairly groaned.

  Nell ought to like to sew. She isn't emancipated enough to hate a needleas I do. But the leaven is working and she's rising slowly. It might bewell for some man to work the dough down a little before she runs overthe pan. That's a primitively feminine wish and not at all in accordancewith my own advanced ideas.

  I was becoming slightly snarled with my thread, and I was glad whenSallie and her sweetness seated itself in the best rocker in the softestbreeze, which Nell had vacated for her.

  "Children are the greatest happiness in life and also the greatestresponsibility, girls," she said, in her lovely rich voice that alwaysmelts me to a solution of sympathy whenever she uses it pensively on me."Of course, I should be desolate without mine, but what could I do withthem, if I didn't have all of you dear people to help me with them?"

  Her wistful dependence had charm.

  I looked at the twin with the yellow fuzz on the top of its head thathas hall-marked it as the Kitten in my mind, seated on Sallie's lap withher head on Sallie's shoulder looking like a baby bud folded against thefull rose, and I couldn't help laughing. Kit had been undressed threetimes after her bath this morning while Cousin Martha, Cousin Jasmineand Mrs. Hargrove argued with each other whether she should or shouldn'thave a scrap of flannel put on over her fat little stomach. Henriettafinally decided the matter by being impudent and sensible to them allabout the temperature.

  "Don't you all 'spose God made the sun some to heat up Kit's stomach?"she demanded scornfully, as she grabbed the little roly-poly bone ofcontention and marched off with her to finish dressing her on the frontporch in the direct rays of her instituted heater.

  The household at large at Widegables can never agree on the clothing ofthe twins and Henrietta often has to finish their toilets thus, byforce. Aunt Dilsie being reduced by her phthisic to a position that isalmost entirely ornamental, Henrietta's strength of character is theonly thing that has made the existence of the twins bearable tothemselves or other people.

  As I have said before, I do wish that some day in the future you willcome under the direct rays of Henrietta's influence, Jane, dear!

  "Yes, Sallie, I should call them a responsibility," I answered her witha laugh, as I reached up my arms for the Kitten. Then, as the littleyellow head snuggled in the hollow that was instituted in the beginningbetween a woman's breast and arm for the purpose of just such nestlings,I whispered as I laid my lips against her little ear, "and a happiness,too, darling."

  And as Sallie rocked and recuperated her breath Nell eyed the ruffleapprehensively.

  "Are you going to let us make another dress for the kiddies, Sallie,dear?" she finally was forced by her uneasiness to ask, though with thedeepest sweetness and consideration in her voice.

  If I am ever a widow with young children I hope they will burn us all upwith the deceased rather than keep me wrapped in a cotton-wool ofsympathy, as all of us do Sallie.

  "It's lovely of you, Nell, to want to do more for the babies after allthe beautiful things you and Evelina have made them, and I may be ableto get another white dress apiece for them after I give Cousin James thebills, that are awful already, but this is some ruffling that I justforced Mamie Hall to let me bring up to you girls to do for her baby.The poor little dear is two months old and Mamie is just beginning onhis little dress for him. He has been wearing the plainest little slips.Mamie says Ned remarked on the fact that the baby was hardly presentablewhen you girls stopped in with him to see it the other day, Nell. Iurged her to get right to work fixing him up. It is wrong for childrennot to be kept as daintily as their father likes to see them."

  How any woman that is as spiritually-minded as I am, and who has so muchlove for the whole world in her heart, and such a deep purpose always tooffer it to her fellowmen according to their need of it, can have thevile temper I possess I cannot see.

  "And the sight that would please me better than anything else I haveeven thought up to want to see," I found myself saying when I becameconscious--I hope I didn't use any of the oaths of my forefathers whichmust have been tempting my refined foremothers for generations and whichI secretly admire Henrietta for indulging in on occasions of impatiencewith Sallie--"would be Ned Hall left entirely alone with that squirmingbaby, that looks exactly like him, when it is having a terrible spell ofcolic and Ned is in the midst of a sick headache, with all the otherchildren cold, hungry, and cross, the cook gone to a funeral, and thenurse in a grouch because she couldn't go and--and he knowing that Mamiewas attired in a lovely, cool muslin dress, sitting up here on the porchwith us sipping a mint julep and smoking a ten-cent cigar, resting andgetting up an appetite for supper. I want him to have about five yearsof such days and then he would deserve the joys of parenthood that henow does not appreciate."

  "Oh, Mamie wouldn't smoke a cigar!" was the exclamation that showed howmuch Sallie got of the motif of my eruption.

  "Glorious!" exclaimed Nell, with shining eyes.

  I must be careful about Nell, she is going this new gait too fast forone so young. Women must learn to fletcherize freedom if it is not togive them indigestion of purpose.

  "Still Ned provides everything in the world he can think of to helpMamie," said Caroline, who had come up the walk just in time to fan theflame in me by her sweet wistfulness, with a soft judiciousness in hervoice and eyes. "And Mamie adores the children and him."

  If one man is unattainable to a woman all the other creatures take onthe hue of being valuable from the reflection. Caroline is pathetic!

  "It would be robbing a woman of a privilege not to let her trot thecolic out of her own baby," Sallie got near enough in sight of thediscussion to shout softly from the rear.

  I have often seen Cousin Martha on one side of the fire trotting thePup, and Cousin Jasmine on the other ministrating likewise to the Kit.so Sallie could take a good nap, which she didn't at all need, on thelong sofa in the living-room at Widegables.

  "Ned is a delightful man and, of course, Mamie adores him." Nell agreedwith an attitude of mind like to the attitude of a body sustained on thetop rail of a shaky fence.

  "He doubtless would be just as delightful to Mamie standing by droppingasafetida into a spoon to administer to the baby, as he is dancing withyou at the Assembly, Nell," I said, still frothy around the temper.

  "He'll never do it again," was the prompt result I got from my shot.

  "The trouble with you, Evelina," said Sallie, with ruminativereflectiveness in her eyes, "is that you have never been married and donot understand how noble a man can be under--"

  "Yes, I should say that you had hit Evelina's trouble exactly on thehead, Sallie," came in Polk's drawl as he came over the rose hedge fromthe side street and seated himself beside Caroline on the steps.

  "Well, if I ever have a husband he'll prove his nobility by beingcompetent to make the correct connection between the asafetida spoon andhis own baby," was the answer that came with so much force that Icou
ldn't stop it after I fully realized Folk's presence and sex.

  "Help!" exclaimed Polk, weakly, while Nell blushed into the fold of herruffle, Caroline looked slightly shocked and Sallie wholly scandalizedat my lack of delicacy.

  I felt that the place had been reached, the audience provided, and thetime ripe for the first gun in my general revolution planned forGlendale. I spoke calmly in a perfect panic of fear.

  "I am glad Polk is here to speak for the masculine side of thequestion," I said, looking all the three astonished women straight inthe face. "Polk, do you or do you not think that a man with a wife andseven children ought to assume at least some of the domestic strainresulting therefrom, like dropping the asafetida in the spoon for herwhile she is wrestling with the youngest-born's colic?"

  "Do I have to answer?" pleaded Polk, with desperation.

  "Yes!"

  "Then, under the circumstances I think the man ought to say: 'To hellwith the spoon,' grab a gun, go out and shoot up a bear and a couple ofwild turkeys for breakfast, throttle some coin out of some nearbybusiness corporation, send two to five trained nurses back to thewigwam, stay down town to lunch and then go home with a tender littlekiss for the madame who meets him fluffy and smiling at the door. That'smy idea of true connubial bliss. Applications considered in the order oftheir reception. Nell, you are sweet enough to eat in that blue muslin.I'm glad I asked you to get one just that shade!"

  And the inane chorus of pleased laughs that followed Polk Hayes'sbrainless disposal of the important question in hand made me ashamed ofbeing a woman--though it was funny. Still I bided my time and Polk sawthe biding, I could tell by the expression in the corners of his eyesthat he kept turned away from me.

  And in less than a half-hour he was left to my mercies, anything buttender. Sallie took Nell and Caroline over home to help her decide howwide a band of white it would be decorous for her to sew in the neck ofher new black meteor crepe. I see it coming that we will all have tounite in getting Sallie out of mourning and into the trappings offrivolity soon and I dread it. It takes so many opinions on any givensubject to satisfy Sallie that she ought to keep a tabulatedadvice-book.

  "Evelina," said Polk, experimentally, after he had seen them safelyacross the street, and he moved along the steps until he sat against myskirts, "are your family subject to colic?"

  "No, they have strong brains instead," I answered icily.

  "Said brains subject to colic, though," he mused in an impudentundertone.

  I laughed: I couldn't help it. One of the dangerous things about Polk isthat he gets you comfortable and warm of heart whenever he gets nearyou. It wouldn't matter at all to him if you should freeze later forlack of his warmth, just so he doesn't know about it.

  "Polk," I began to say in a lovely serious tone of voice, looking himsquare in the eyes and determined that as we were now on the subject ofbasic things, like infantile colic, I would have it out with him alongall lines, "there is an awful shock coming to you when you realizethat--"

  "That in the heat of this erudite and revolutionary discussion, which anevil fate led me to drop in on, I have forgotten to give you thistelegram that came for you while I was down at the station shipping somelumber. Be as easy as you can with me, Evelina, and remember that I amyour childhood's companion when you decide between us." With which hehanded me a blue telegram.

  I opened it hastily and found that it was from Richard:

  Am coming down to Bolivar with C. & G. Commission. Be deciding about what I wrote you. Must.

  RICHARD.

  I sat perfectly still for several seconds because I felt that a goodstrong hand had reached out of the distance and gently grabbed me.Dickie had bossed me strenuously through two years of the time before Ihad awakened to the fact that, for his good, I must take the directionof the affairs of him and his kind on my and my kind's shoulders.

  I suppose a great many years of emancipation will have to pass over theheads of women before they lose the gourd kind of feeling at the sightof a particularly broad, strong pair of shoulders. My heart sparkled atthe idea of seeing Dickie again and being browbeaten in a good old,methodical, tender way. I suppose the sparkle in my heart showed in myeyes, for Polk sat up quickly and took notice of it very decidedly.

  "Wire especially impassioned?" he asked, with a smolder in his eyes.

  "Not especially." I answered serenely, "One of my friend's father is adirector in the C. & G. and he is coming down with him for theconference over at Bolivar between the two roads next week."

  "Good," answered Polk, heartily, as the flare died out of his eyes.

  I was glad he didn't have to see the wire for I wanted to use Polk'sbrain a while if I could get his emotions to sleep in my presence. It isvery exasperating for a woman to be offered flirtation when she is inneed of common sense from a man. There are so many times she needs theone rather than the other, but the dear creatures refuse to realize it,if she's under forty.

  "Polk, do you see any logical, honest or dishonest way to get that Roadto take the Glendale bluff line?" I asked, with trepidation, for thatwas the first time I had ever even begun to discuss anythingintelligently with Polk.

  "None in the world, Evelina," he answered with a nice, straight,intellectuality showing over his whole face and even his lazy, posingfigure. "I remonstrated with James and Henry Carruthers both when theyused their influence to have the bonds voted and I told James it wasmadness to invest in all that field and swamp property with just achance of the shops. The trouble was that James had always left all hisbusiness to Henry, along with the firm's business, for a man can't bethe kind of lawyer James is, and carry the details of the handling offilthy lucre in the same mind that can make a speech like the one hemade down in Nashville last April, on the exchange of the Judiciary.James can be the Governor of this good State any time he wants to, orcould, if Henry hadn't turned toes and left him such a bag to hold--noreference to Sallie's figure intended, which is all to the good if youlike that kind of curves!"

  I took a moment to choose my words.

  "The C. & G. is going to take that bluff route," I answered calmly fromsomewhere inside me that I had never used to speak from before.

  "Do you know anything of the character of Mrs. Joshua?" asked Polk,admiringly, but slipping down from his intellectual attitude of mind andbody and edging an inch nearer. "Bet she had a strong mind or Joshuanever could have pulled off that sun and moon stunt."

  "Do you know, Polk, there is one woman in the world who could--couldhandle you?" I said, as a sudden vision of what Jane would do, if Polksat on her skirts as he did on mine, flashed across my troubled brain.

  "I'd be mighty particular as to who handles me," he answered impudently,"Want to try?" And with the greatest audacity he laid his head gentlyagainst my knee. I let it rest there a second and then tipped it backagainst the arm of the rocker.

  "It does hurt me to see a man like Cousin James fairly throttled bywomen as he is being," I said as I looked across the street and notedthat the porch of Widegables was full to overflowing with the householdof women.

  "Evelina," said Polk, as he stood up suddenly in front of me, "that oldMossback is the finest man in this commonwealth, but from his situationnobody can extract him, unless it is a woman with the wiliness of thedevil himself. Poison the whole bunch and I'll back you. But we'll haveto plot it later on. I see his reverence coming tripping along with atract in his hand for you and I'll be considerate enough to sneakthrough the kitchen, get a hot muffin-cake that has been tantalizing mynose all this time you have been sentimentalizing over me, and returnanon when I can have you all to myself in the melting moonlight in thesmall hours after all religious folk are in bed. Until then!" And as hewent back through the front hall Mr. Haley came down the front walk.

  "My dear Miss Shelby, how fortunate I am to find you alone," heexclaimed with such genuine delight beaming from his nice, good,friendly, gray eyes that I beamed up myself a bit out of pureresponsiveness.

  "I am so g
lad to see you, Mr. Haley. Hasn't it been a lovely day?" Ianswered, as I offered him the large rocker Sallie had vacated.

  "It has, indeed, and I don't know when I have been as deeply happy. Thishour with you will be the very climax of the day's perfections, I feelsure."

  I smiled.

  To follow you, Jane, I "let a man look freely into my heart and thusencouraged he opened his to mine" and behold, I found Sallie and thetwins and Henrietta all squatting in the Dominie's cardiac regions, justas comfortably as they do it at Widegables.

  "My sympathies have become so enlisted in the struggle which Mrs.Carruthers is having to curb the eccentricities of her oldest daughterthat I feel I must lay definite plans to help her. It is very difficultfor a young and naturally yielding woman like Mrs. Carruthers todiscipline alone even so young a child as Henrietta. I know you willhelp me all you can to help her. Believe me, my dear friend, even in theshort time you have been in Glendale you have become a tower of strengthto me. I feel that I can take my most difficult and sacred perplexitiesto you."

  Now, what do you think of that, Jane? Be sure and rub this situation inon all the waiting Five disciples. I defy any of them to do so well inless than three months. This getting on a plane of common citizenshipwith a fellow-man is easy. That is, with some men.

  Still while you are getting on the plane somebody else gets the man.What about that? I didn't want Mr. Haley, but what if I had?

  "Yes, Henrietta is a handful, Mr. Haley," I answered with enthusiasm,for even the mention of Henrietta enlivens me and somehow Mr. Haley'sgetting in the game of "curbing" her stirred up my risibles. "But--butSallie already has a good many people to help her with the children. Ihave been trying to--to influence Henrietta--and she does not swearexcept on the most exasperating occasions now."

  "The dear little child created a slight consternation in her SundaySchool class last week when they were being taught the great dramaticstory of Jonah's three days' incarceration in the whale. To quote herexactly, so that you may see how it must have affected the otherchildren, she said: 'I swallowed a live fly onct myself and I'm not damnfool enough to believe that whale kept Jonah down three days, alive andkicking, no matter who says so.'

  "She then marched out of the class and has not returned these twosucceeding Sabbaths. It was to talk over the matter I called on Mrs.Carruthers this afternoon, and I have never had my sympathies sostirred. We must help her, my dear friend!"

  I never enjoyed anything more in my life than the hour I spent helpingthat dear, good, funny man plan first aids to the rearing of Sallie'schildren. Besides my cooeperation he has planned to enlist that of AuntAugusta, and I was wicked enough to let him do it. In a small villagewhere the inhabitants have no chance at diversions like Wagnerian operasand collapsing skyscrapers I felt that I had no right to avert thespectacle of Aunt Augusta's disciplining Henrietta.

  I'll write you all about it, Jane, in a special delivery letter.

  Jasper whipped Petunia with great apparent severity day beforeyesterday, and we have been having the most heavenly waffles and broiledchicken ever since. I dismissed Jasper for doing it, but Petunia cameinto my room and cried about it a half-hour, so I had to go out where hewas rubbing the silver and forgive him and hire him over.

  "When a woman gits her mouth stuck out at a man and the world in generalthree days hand running they ain't nothing to cure it but a stick," heanswered with lofty scorn.

  "Yes'm, dat's so," answered Petunia. "I never come outen a spell so easybefore." And her yellow face had a pink glow of happiness all over it asshe smiled lovably on the black brute.

  I went off into a corner and sat down for a quiet hour to think. Nobodyin the world knows everything.

  "Supper's on the table," Jasper announced, after having seen Mr. Haleygo down the front walk to-night. Jasper has such great respect for thecloth that never in the world would he have asked Mr. Haley in to supperwithout having at least a day to prepare for him. Any of my otherfriends he would have asked, regardless of whether or not I wanted them.

  I somehow didn't feel that I could eat alone to-night, but it was toolate to go for Sallie or Cousin Jasmine, and besides it is weak-mindedto feel that way. Why shouldn't I want to eat by myself?

  This is a great big house for just one woman, and I don't see why I haveto be that one! I never was intended to be single. I seem to even thinkdouble. Way down in me there is a place that all my life I have beenlaying things aside in to tell some day to somebody that willunderstand. I don't remember a single one of them now, but when the timecomes somebody is going to ask me a question very softly and it is goingto be the key that will unlock the treasures of all my life, and he willtake them out one by one, and look at them and love them and smile overthem and scold over them and be frightened even to swearing over them,perhaps weep over them, and then--while I'm very close--pray over them.I could feel the tears getting tangled in my lashes, but I forced themback.

  Now, I don't see why I should have been sentimentalizing over myselflike that. Just such a longing, miserable, wait-until-he-comes--andwhy-doesn't-he-hurry-or-I'll-take-the-wrong-man attitude of mind andsentiment in women in general is what I have taken a vow on my soul, andmade a great big important wager to do away with. There are millions oflovely men in the world and all I have to do is to go out and find theright one, be gentle with him until he understands my mode of attack tobe a bit different from the usual crawfish one employed by women fromprehistoric times until now, but not later: and then domesticate him inany way that suits me.

  Here I've been in Glendale almost three months and have let my time beoccupied keeping house for nobody but myself and to entertain myfriends, planting a flower garden that can't be used at all fornourishment, and sewing on another woman's baby clothes.

  I've written millions of words in this book and there is as yet not oneword that will help the Five in the serious and important task ofproving that they have a right to choose their own mates, and certainlynothing to help them perform the ceremonial.

  If I don't do better than this Jane will withdraw her offer and there isno telling how many years the human race will be retarded by my lack ofstrength of character.

  What do men do when they begin to see the gray hairs on their templesand when they have been best-man at twenty-three weddings, and are tiredof being at christenings and buying rattles, and things at the club alltaste exactly alike, and they have purchased ten different kinds ofhair-tonic that it bores them to death to rub on the tops of their ownheads?

  I don't want any man I know! I might want Polk, if I let him have half achance to make me, but that would be dishonorable.

  I've got up so much nice warm sisterly love for Dickie and Mr. Haleythat I couldn't begin to love them in the right way now, I am afraid.Still, I haven't seen Dickie for three months and maybe my desperationwill have the effect of enhancing his attractions. I hope so.

  Still I am disgusted deeply with myself. I believe if I could experimentwith mankind I could make some kind of creature that would be a lotbetter than a woman for all purposes, and I would--

  "Supper's ready and company come," Jasper came to the front door toannounce for the third time, but this time with the unctuous voice ofdelight that a guest always inspires in him. I promptly went in towelcome my materialized desire whoever it happened to be.

  The Crag was standing by the window in the half light that came, partlyfrom the candles in their tall old silver candlesticks that wereGrandmother Shelby's, and partly from the last glow of the sun down overthe ridge. That was what I needed!

  "I was coming in from the fields across your back yard and I saw thetable lighted and you on the front porch, star-gazing, and--and I gotJasper to invite me." he said as he came over and drew out my chair onone side of that wide square table, while Jasper stood waiting to seathim at the other, about a mile away.

  "I wanted you," I answered him stupidly, as I sank into my place andleaned my elbows on the table so I could drop my warm cheeks into myhands comf
ortably. I didn't see why I should be blushing.

  "That's the reason I came then," he answered, as he looked at me acrossthe bowl of musk roses that were sending out waves of sweetness to meetthose that were coming in from the honeysuckle climbing over the window."If you were ever lonely and needed me, Evelina, you would tell me,wouldn't you?" he asked, as he leaned towards me and regarded me stillmore closely.

  And again those two treacherous tears rose and tangled themselves in mylashes, though I did shake them away quickly as a smile quivered its wayto command of my mouth. But I was not quick enough and he saw them.

  And what he did was just what I wanted him to do! He rose, picked up hischair and came around that huge old table and sat down at the cornerjust as near to my elbow as the steaming coffee pot would let him.

  "If you wanted me any time, would you tell me, Evelina?" he insistedfrom this closer range.

  "No, I wouldn't," I answered with a laugh. "I would expect you to knowit, and come just like you did to-night."

  "But--but it was I that wanted you badly in this case," he answered withan echo of the laugh.

  But even under the laugh I saw signs of excitement in his deep eyes andhis long, lean hands shook as they handed me his cup to pour the coffee.Jasper had laid his silver and napkin in front of him and retired toadmonish Petunia as to the exact crispness of her first waffle.

  "What is it?" I asked breathlessly, as I moved the coffee pot frombetween us to the other side.

  "Just a letter that came to me from the Democratic Headquarters in theCity, that shook me up a bit and made me want to--to tell _you_ aboutit. Nobody else can know--I have been out on Old Harpeth all afternoonfighting that out, and telling you is the only thing I have allowedmyself."

  "They want you to be the next Governor," I said quickly. "And you willbe, too," I added, again using that queer place in my brain that seemsto know perfectly unknowable things and that only works in matters thatconcern him.

  "No!"

  "Yes, Your Excellency," I hurled at him defiantly.

  "You witch, you," he answered me with a pleased, teasing whimsicalitycoming into his eyes. "Of course, you guessed the letter and it was dearto have you do it, but we both know it is impossible. Nobody must hearof it, and the telling you has been the best I could get out of itanyway. Jasper, take my compliments to Petunia, this chicken isperfection!"

  That eighth wonder of the world which got lost was something even moremysterious than the Sphinx. It was a marvel that could have been usedfor women to compare men to. That man sat right there at my side andate four waffles, two large pieces of chicken and a liver-wing, dranktwo cups of coffee, and then devoured a huge bowl of peaches and cream,with three muffin-cakes, while enduring the tragedy of the realizationof having to decline the Governorship of his State.

  I watched him do it, first in awe and then with a dim understanding ofsomething, I wasn't sure what. Most women, under the circumstances,would have gone to bed and cried it out or at least have refused foodfor hours. We've got to get over those habits before we get to the pointof having to refuse to be Governors of the States and railroadpresidents and things like that.

  And while he ate, there I sat not able to more than nibble because I wasmaking up my mind to do something that scared me to death to thinkabout. That gaunt, craggy man in a shabby gray coat, cut ante-bellumwise, with a cravat that wound itself around his collar, snowy anddainty, but on the same lines as the coat and evidently of ruralmanufacture in the style favored by the flower and chivalry of the dayof Henry Clay, had progressive me as completely overawed for severalminutes as any painted redskin ever dominated a squaw--or as Jasper didPetunia in my own kitchen.

  But after we were left alone with the roses and the candles and hiscigar, with only Jasper's gratified voice mumbling over compliments toPetunia in the distance, I took my courage in my hands and plunged.

  This can he used as data for the Five.

  "James." I said, with such cool determination in my voice that it almostfroze my own tongue, "I meant to tell you about it several weeks ago, Ihave decided to adopt Sallie and all the children. I intend to legallyadopt the children and just nominally adopt Sallie, but it will amountto the same thing. I don't have to have your consent but I think it iscourteous to ask for it."

  "What!" he exclaimed, as he sat up and looked at me with the expressionan alienist might use in an important examination.

  "Yes," I answered, gaining courage with time. "You see, I was crying outhere on the porch with loneliness when you found me. I can't stand thisany longer. I must have a family right away and Sallie's just suits me.I have to take a great deal of interest in them anyway and it would beeasier if I had complete control of them. It will leave you with enoughfamily to keep you from being lonely and then we can all be happytogether down into old age."

  "Have you said anything about this to Sallie?" he asked weakly as hedipped the end of his cigar into his glass of water and watched thesputter with the greatest interest.

  "Not yet, but don't you feel sure that she will consent?" I asked, withconfidence in my plan at fever heat. "Sallie is so generous and shecan't want to see me live lonely always, without any family at all. Now,will she?"

  "She would consent!" he answered slowly, and then he laid his head downon the table right against my arm and shook so that the candlesticksrattled against the candles. "But I don't," he gasped, and for the lifeof me I couldn't tell whether he was crying or laughing, until he sat upagain.

  "Eve," he said, with his eyes fairly dancing into mine, "if women ingeneral mean to walk over political difficulties as you are planning towalk away with this one of mine, I'm for feminine rule. Don't you daresay one word about such a thing to Sallie. Of course, it is impossibleas it is funny."

  It was a tragedy to have such a lovely scheme as I had thought up on thespur of the moment, knocked down suddenly by a half dozen positive wordsfrom a mere man, and for a moment my eyes fought with his in openrebellion. Then I rose haughtily and walked out on the front porch.

  "Dear," he said, as he followed me and took my hand in his and drew menear him, "don't you know that your wanting to put your shoulder underany burden I may be bearing lifts it completely? There are things inthis situation that you can't understand. If I seem to make sacrifices,they come from the depths of my heart and are not sacrifices. Will youbelieve me?"

  How can he help loving Sallie with her so emphatically there?

  I answered him I suppose to his liking and he went on across the road toWidegables and left me alone in the cruel darkness.

  Please, God, when things seem to be drowning me like this make me swimwith head up. Amen!