CHAPTER V
THE HONORABLE GID
"Now, Amandy, stick them jack-beans in the ground round side upwards.Do you want 'em to have to turn over to sprout?" demanded MissLavinia, as she stood leaning on her crotched stick over by the southside of the garden fence, directing the planting of her favorite vinethat was to be trained along the pickets and over the gate. LittleMiss Amanda, as usual, was doing her best to carry out exactly thebehests of her older and a little more infirm sister. Miss Amanda waspossessed of a certain amount of tottering nimbleness which she put atthe disposal of Miss Lavinia at all times with the most cheerygood-will. Miss Amanda was of the order of little sisters who serveand Miss Lavinia belonged to the sisterhood dominant by nature and bythe consent of Miss Amanda and the rest of her family.
"It's such a long row I don't know as I'll hold out to finish it,Sister Viney, if I have to stop to finger the beans in such a way asthat. But I'll try," answered the little worker, going on sticking thebeans in with trembling haste.
"Let me help you, please, Miss Amanda," entreated Everett, who hadcome out to watch the bean planting with the intention of offeringaid, with also the certainty of having it refused.
"No, young man," answered Miss Lavinia promptly and decidedly. "Thesejack beans must be set in by a hand that knows 'em. We can't run norisks of having 'em to fail to come up. I got the seed of 'em over toSpringfield when me and Mr. Robards was stationed there just beforethe war. Mr. Robards was always fond of flowers, and these jack beansin special. He was such a proper meek man and showed so few likingsthat I feel like I oughter honor this one by growing these vines inplenty as a remembrance, even if he has been dead forty-odd years."
"Was your husband a minister?" asked Everett in a voice of becomingrespect to the meek Mr. Robards, though he be demised for nearly halfa century.
"He was that, and a proper, saddlebags-riding, torment-preachingcircuit rider before he was made presiding elder at an astonishingearly age," answered Miss Lavinia, a fading fire blazing up in herdark eyes. "He saved many a sinner in Harpeth Valley by preaching bothheaven and hell in their fitten places, what's a thing this youngergeneration don't know how to do any more, it seems like. A sermon thatsets up heaven like a circus tent, with a come-sinner-come-all sign,and digs hell no deeper than Mill Creek swimming pool, as is skeercelyover a boy's middle, ain't no sermon at all to my mind. Most preachingin Sweetbriar are like that nowadays."
"But Brother Robards had a mighty sweet voice and he gave the call ofGod's love so as to draw answers from all hearts," said Miss Amanda inher own sweet little voice, as she jabbed in the beans with her righthand and drew the dirt over them with her left.
"Yes, husband was a little inclined to preach from Psalms more'n goodrousing Proverbs, but I always belt him to the main meat of the Gospeland only let him feed the flock on the sweets of faith in properproportion," answered Miss Lavinia, with an echo in her voice of theenergy expended in keeping the presiding elder to a Jeremiah ratherthan a David role in his ministry.
"It was a mighty blow to the Methodist Church when he was taken awayso young," said Miss Amanda gently. "I know I said then that theynever would be--"
"Lands alive, if here ain't Miss Viney and Miss Amandy out plantingthe jack beans and I ain't got down not a square foot of summerturnip greens!" exclaimed a hearty voice as Mrs. Rucker hurried upacross the yard to the garden gate. "Now I know I'm a behind-hander,for my ground's always ready, and in go the greens when you all turnspade for the bean vines. Are you a-looking for a little job ofplowing, Mr. Mark? I'd put Mr. Rucker at it, but he give his leftankle a twist yestidy and have had to be kinder quiet, a-setting onthe back porch or maybe a-hobbling over to the store."
"Yes, I'll plow, if you don't care whether your mule or plow or hamestrings come out alive," answered Everett with a laugh. Miss Amandahad risen, hurried eagerly over to her favorite neighbor and held outher hand for the pan tendered her.
"Them's your sally luns, Miss Amandy, and they are a good chanct if Ido say it myself. I jest know you and Rose Mary have got on the bigpot and little kettle for Mr. Newsome, and I'm mighty proud to havethe luns handed around with your all's fixings. I reckon Rose Mary isso comfusticated you can't hardly trust her with no supper rolls orsuch like. Have you seen him yet, Rose Mary?" she asked of Rose Mary,who had appeared at the garden gate.
"No; I've just come up from the milk-house," answered Rose Mary with alaughing blush. "When did Mr. Newsome come?"
"Just now," answered Mrs. Rucker, with further banter in her eyes."And none of Solomon's lilies in all they glory was ever arrayed likeone of him. You better go frill yourself out, Rose Mary, for the menain't a-going to be able to hold him chavering over there at the storevery long."
"It will only take me a few minutes to dress," answered Rose Mary,with a continuation of the blush. "The Aunties are all ready forsupper, and Stonie and Uncle Tucker. Mag has got everything just readyto dish up, and I'll take in the sally luns to be run in the stove atthe last moment. Isn't it lovely to have company? Friends right athome you can show your liking for all the time, but you must becareful to save their share for the others to give to them when theycome. Mr. Mark, don't you want to--"
But before Rose Mary had begun her sentence Mr. Mark Everett, of NewYork City, New York, was striding away across the yard with a longswing, and as he went through the front gate it somehow slipped out ofhis hand and closed itself with a bang. The expression of his back ashe crossed the road might have led one versed in romantics to concludethat a half-unsheathed sword hung at his side and that he had twoflintlocks thrust into his belt.
And over at the store he found himself in the midst of a jubilation.Mr. Gideon Newsome, of Bolivar, Tennessee, stood in the doorway, andsurrounding him in the store, in the doorway and on the porch was theentire masculine population of Sweetbriar.
Mr. Newsome was tall and broad and well on the way to portliness. Hislimbs were massive and slow of movement and his head large, with amane of slightly graying hair flung back from a wide, unfurrowed brow.Small and very black eyes pierced out from crinkled heavy lids and abulldog jaw shot out from under a fat beak of a nose. And over thebroad expanse of countenance was spread a smile so sweet, so deep, sohigh that it gave the impression of obscuring the form of featuresentirely. In point of fact it was a thick and impenetrable veil thatthe Senator had for long hung before his face from behind which toview the world at large. And through his mouth, as through a rent inthe smile, he was wont to pour out a volume of voice as musical in itsdrawl and intensified southern burr as the bass note on awell-seasoned 'cello.
He was performing the obligato of a prohibition hymn for the group offarmers around him when he caught sight of Everett as he came acrossthe street. Instantly his voice was lowered to a honeyedconversational pitch as he came to the edge of the porch and held outa large, fat, white hand, into which Everett laid his own by courtesyperforced.
"I'm delighted to see you, Mr. Everett, suh, delighted!" he boomed."And in such evident improved health. I inquired for you at Bolivar assoon as I returned and I was informed that you had come over here tofind perfect restoration to health in the salubrious climate of thiswonderful town of Sweetbriar. I'm glad to see your looks confirm theanswer to my anxious inquiries. And is all well with you?"
"Thank you, Senator, I'm in pretty good shape again," answered Everettwith a counter smile. "Ten pounds on and I'm in fighting trim." Thewords were said pleasantly, but for the life of him Everett could notcontrol the hostility of a quick glance that apparently struckharmlessly against the veil of smiles.
"That there ten pounds had oughter be twenty, Senator, at the rate ofthe Alloway feeding of him, from milk-house to cellar preserve shelf,"said Mr. Crabtree from behind the counter where he was doing up apound of tea for the poet, who found it impossible to take his eyesoff the politician. "Miss Rose Mary ain't give me a glass ofbuttermilk for more'n a week, and they do say she has to keep a loafhandy in the milk-house to feed him 'fore he gets as f
ar as MissAmandy and the kitchen. We're going to run him in a fattening racewith Mis' Rucker's fancy red hog she's gitting ready for the StateFair and the new Poteet baby, young Master Tucker Poteet ofSweetbriar."
"So there's a new Poteet young man, and named for my dear friend, Mr.Alloway! My congratulations, Mr. Poteet!" exclaimed the senator as hepumped the awkward, horny hand of the embarrassed but proud Mr. Poteetup and down as if it were the handle of the town pump. "I must besure to have an introduction to the young man. Want to meet all thevoters," he added, shaking out the smile veil with energy.
And at this very opportune moment he looked down the Road and espied aprocession of presentation approaching. The General in the midst ofthe Swarm was coming at a breakneck speed and clasped firmly in hisarms he held a small blue bundle. On his right galloped Tobe withShoofly swung at her usual dangerous angle on his hip, and JennieRucker supported his left wing, with stumbling Petie pulled alongbetween her hand and that of small Peggy. Around and behind swarmedthe rest of the Poteet seven, the Ruckers and the Nickols, with Mrs.Sniffer and the five little dogs bringing up the rear.
"Well, well, and what have we here?" exclaimed the great man as hedescended and stood in front of the lined-up cohorts.
"It's the Poteet baby," answered the General with precision. "Webringed him to show you. He's going to be a boy; they can't nothingchange him now. Shoofly is a girl, but Mis' Poteet didn't fool us thistime. Besides if he'd been a girl we wouldn't a-had him for nothing."
"Why, young man, you don't mean to discredit the girls, do you?"demanded the Senator with a gallantly propitiating glance in thedirection of Jennie, Peggy and the rest of the bunch of assorted pinkand blue little calico petticoats. "Why could anything be finer than asweet little girl?" And as he spoke he rested his hand on Jennie'stow-pigtailed head.
"Well, what's sweet got to do with it if we've got too many of 'em?"answered the General in his usual argumentative tone. "Till littleTucker comed they was three more girls than they was boys, and itwasn't fair. Now they is just two more, and four of Sniffie's puppiesis boys, so that makes it most even until another one comes, what'lljust _have_ to be a boy." And the General cast a threatening glancein the direction of the calico bunch as he issued this ultimatum tofeminine Sweetbriar.
"I'll ask Maw," murmured Jennie bashfully, but Miss Peggy turned upher small nose and switched her short skirts scornfully as the men onthe porch laughed and the Senator emitted a very roar in his boomingbass.
"Well, well, we'll have to settle that later," he said in his mostpropitiating urge-voter voice as he cast a smile over the entireSwarm. "Hadn't you better carry the young man back to his mother? Heseems to be restless," he further remarked, taking advantage of aslight squirm in which young Tucker indulged himself, though he wasnot at all uncomfortable in Stonie's arms, accustomed as he was tobeing transported in any direction at any time by any one of hisconfreres. And with this skilful hint of dismissal the Senator bentdown and bestowed the imperative political kiss on the little pinkPoteet head, smattered one or two over Shoofly and Pete, landed one onthe tip of Jennie Rucker's little freckled nose and started them allup the Road in good order as he turned once more to the men in thestore.
But the advent of the Swarm had served to remind the group of hisfriends that the time for the roof-tree gathering was fastapproaching, and Mr. Crabtree was busy filling half-forgotten supperorders for impatient waiters, while most of the men had gone up ordown the Road in the wake of the scattering Swarm. For a few minutesthe Senator and Everett were left on the porch steps alone.
"I hear from some of the men that you have been able to do someprospecting in the last weeks, Mr. Everett," remarked the Senatorcasually from behind the veil, as he accepted and lighted a cigar.
"Just knocked around a bit," answered Everett carelessly. "The wholeMississippi Valley is interesting geologically. There is quite apromise of oil here, but practically no outcrop."
"Your examination been pretty thorough--professional?" queried theSenator, still in an equally careless voice, though his little eyesgleamed out of their slits.
"Oh, yes, I thrashed it all out, especially Mr. Alloway's place. I'dlike to have found oil for him--and the rest of Sweetbriar, too, butit isn't here." Everett spoke decidedly, and there was a note in hisvoice as if to end the discussion. His own eyes he kept down on hiscigar and, as he lounged against a post he had an air of beingslightly bored by an uninteresting shop topic. The Senator looked athim a few seconds keenly, started to make a trivial change in theconversation, then made a flank movement, bent toward Everett andbegan to speak in a suave and most confidential manner.
"I'm sorry, too, you didn't find the oil on the old gentleman'splace," he said in his most open and dulcet tones. "I am very fond ofMr. Alloway; I may say of the whole family. Farming is too hard workfor him at his years and I would have liked for him to have had theease of an increased income. Some time ago a phosphate expert examinedthese regions, but reported nothing worth working. I had more hope ofthe oil. As I say, I am interested in Mr. Alloway and the family--Imay say it to you in confidence, particularly interested in one of themembers." And the smile that the Senator bestowed upon Everett arouseda keen desire for murder in the first degree. There was a challengeand a warning in it and a cunning, too, that was deeper than both.Controlling his impulse to smash the Senatorial bulldog jaw, Everett'smind went instantly after the cunning.
"So you only got the phosphate in your examination report of theAlloway place?" he asked in a friendly, interested tone, as if thehint had failed to make a landing. The cunning in his own glance andtone he was shrewd enough to hide.
"That was about all--nothing that was worth taking up then," answeredthe Senator again carelessly, and at that moment Mr. Crabtree came outto join them.
In a few minutes Everett threw away his cigar, glanced across at theBriars, where he could see Rose Mary and Uncle Tucker establishingMiss Lavinia, in her high company cap, in the big chair on the frontporch, and without a word he strode out the back door of the store andacross the fields toward Boliver. He stopped at the Rucker side fenceand entrusted a message to the willing Jenny, and then went on intothe twilight in the direction of the lights of the distant town.
And as he walked along his mood was, to say the least, savage, and hecut, with a long switch he had picked up, at some nodding little windbells that had begun to show their colors along the side of the road.He was hungry and he was having his supper in detached visions. NowRose Mary was handing the Senator a plate of high-piled supper rolls,each with a golden stream of butter cascading down the side, and asher lovely bare arm held them across to the guest probably she washelping Stonie's plate with her other hand to a spoonful of creamgravy over his nicely browned chicken leg. On her side of the tableMiss Lavinia was pouring the rich cream over her bowl of steaming mushand the materialized aroma from Uncle Tucker's cup of coffee that RoseMary had just poured him brought tears to Everett's eyes. Then came aflash of Aunt Amandy helping herself under Rose Mary's urging to asecond crisp waffle, and the Senator was preparing to accept hissixth, impelled by the same solicitous smile that had landed thesecond on the little old lady's plate. Again Rose Mary was pouring theSenator's second cup and stirring in the cream. If she had lifted thespoon to her lips, as she always did with Uncle Tucker's andsometimes forgot and did with his, Everett would have--And at thispoint he turned the bend and ran smash into the dramatic scene of aromance.
Seated by the side of the road was Louisa Helen Plunkett, and beforeher stood young Bob Nickols, an agony of helplessness showing in everyline of his face and big loose-jointed figure, for Louisa Helen wasweeping into a handkerchief and one of her blue muslin sleeves. And itwas not a series of sentimental sobs and sighs or controlled andeffective sniffs in which Louisa Helen was indulging, but she wasboo-hooing in good earnest with real chokings and gurgles of sobs. Bobwas screwing the toe of his boot into the dust and saying and doingabsolutely and desperately nothing.
"Why, Louisa Hel
en, what is the matter?" demanded Everett as he seatedhimself beside the wailer and endeavored to bring down the pitch ofthe sobs by a kindly pat on the heaving shoulder.
"What's happened, Bob?" he demanded of the silent and dejected lover,who only shook his head as he answered from the depths of confusion.
"I don't know; she just of a sudden flung down and began to hollow andI ain't never got her to say."
"Oh, I want a supper and a veil and a bokay!" came in a perfect howlfrom the folds of the sleeve.
"I want some supper, too, Louisa Helen," said Everett quickly, and asmile lifted the corners of his mouth as the situation began tounravel itself to his sympathetic concern. "I guess I could take thebouquet and veil, too," he added to himself in an undertone.
"I ain't a-going to let Maw insult Bob no more, but I don't want noBoliver wedding in the office of no hotel. I want to be married wherefolks can look at me, and have something good to eat, and throw oldshoes and rice at me," came in a more constrained and connected flow,as the poor little fugitive raised her head from her arm and reacheddown to settle her skirts about her ankles, from which she had flirtedthem in the kicks of one of her most violent paroxysms. Louisa Helenwas very young and just as pretty as she was young. She was rosy anddimpled and had absurd little baby curls trailing down over her eyes,and her tears had no more effect on her face than a summer shower.
"Why, what did your mother say to Bob?" asked Everett, thus drawn intothe position of arbitrator between two family factions.
"She told him that Jennie Rucker would be about his frying size whenhe got old enough to pick a wife, and it hurt his feelings so hedidn't come to see me for a week, and he says he ain't never coming nomore. If I want him I will have to go over to Boliver and marry himto-morrow." A sob began to rise again in the poor little brideprospective's throat at the thought of the horrible Boliver wedding.
The autocrat shifted uneasily, and in the dusk Everett could see thathe was completely melted and ready to surrender his position if hecould only find the line of retreat.
"Well," said Everett judicially, as he looked up at Bob with a wink,which was answered by the slightest beginning of laugh from theinsulted one, "I don't believe Bob wants to do without that bouquetand veil and supper either. They are just the greatest things thatever happen to a man"--another wink at Bob--"and Bob don't want togive them up. Now suppose you go on back home to-night and don't sayanything to your mother about the matter, and to-morrow I'll ask Mr.Crabtree to step over and make it up with Bob for her. I feel sureshe'll invite them both in to supper, and then sometime soon we canall discuss the veil-bouquet question. You aren't in a hurry, areyou?"
"Naw," answered Bob promptly. "Me and Paw ain't got all the winterwheat in yet, and we've got to cut clover next week. We're mightybusy now. I ain't in no hurry."
"And I don't want to get married no way except when the briar roses isin bloom so I can have the church tucked out in 'em. And I've got toget some pretty clothes made, too," answered Louisa Helen, thusputting in direct contrast the feminine and masculine attitude towardsnuptials in general and also in particular.
"Then go on back home, you two," said Everett with a laugh, as he roseto his feet and drew to hers the now smiling Louisa Helen. "And Ipredict that by the time the briar roses are out something will happento make it all right. Put your faith in Mr. Crabtree, I should advise,I suspect that he has--er influence with your mother." A giggle fromLouisa Helen and a guffaw from Bob, as the two young people started onback along the Road, showed that they had both appreciated his veiledsally.
And as he stood watching them out of sight down the Road the twilightfaded from off the Valley and darkness came down in a starlit veilfrom over old Harpeth. Everett climbed up and seated himself on thetop rail of the fence and again gave himself over to his moods. Thistime one of bitterness, almost anger, rose to the surface. The sameold wheel grinding out here in the wilderness that he had left in themarket places of the world. The vision he had caught of the greatcycle being turned by some still greater source above the hills was--avision. The wheels ground on with the victims strapped and the cogsdripping. Loot and the woman--loot and the woman! And he had thoughtthat out here "_in the hollow of His hand_" he had lost the sound ofthat grind. And such a woman--the lovely gracious thing with theunfaithful, dishonored lover's child in her arms, other women'stumbling children clinging to her skirts and with hands outstretchedto protect and comfort the old gray heads in her care! A woman with asorrow in her heart but with eyes that were deep blue pools in whichthere mirrored loves for all her little world! For a long time he satand looked out into the darkness, then suddenly he squared hisshoulders, gripped the rail tight in his hands for a half second andthen slipped to the ground. Picking up his switch he turned and strodeoff toward Sweetbriar, which by this time was a little handful offireflys glowing down in the sweet meadows.
When he got as far as the blacksmith's shop Everett climbed the walland approached the house through the garden, for in front of the storehad been piled high a bonfire of empty boxes and dry wood boughs, andmost of the inhabitants of Sweetbriar, small fry and large, wereassembled in jocular groups around its blaze of light. He could seeMr. Crabtree and Bob rolling out an empty barrel to serve as aspeaking stand for the Honorable Gid, who stood in the foreground infront of the store steps talking to Uncle Tucker, with an admiringcircle around him. Horses and wagons and buggies were hitched atvarious posts along the road, which indicated the gathering of a smallcrowd from neighboring towns to hear the coming oration, and the frontporch of the store presented a scene of unwonted excitement.
Everett clicked the garden gate and steered around to the back door ofthe kitchen in hopes of finding black Mag still at her post andbegging of her a glass of milk and a biscuit. But as he stood in thedoorway, instead of Mag he discovered Rose Mary with her white skirtstucked up under one of her long kitchen aprons, putting the finalpolishing touch to a shining pile of dishes. She looked up at him fora second, and then went on with her work, and Everett could see thather curled lips were trembling like a hurt child's.
"I--I thought I might get a bite of something from--from Mag if shehadn't left--the kitchen--I--I--" Everett hesitated on the thresholdand in speech. "I--I am sorry to trouble you," he finished lamely.
"I don't believe you care--care if you do," answered Rose Mary, andher blue eyes showed a decided temper spark under their black lashes."I see I made a mistake in expecting anything of you. A friend'sfingers ought not to slip through yours when you need them to holdtight. But come, get your supper--"
"Please, Rose Mary, I'm most awfully ashamed," he said as he came andstood close beside her, and there was a note in his voice that fairlystartled him with its tenderness. "I'm just a cross old bear, and Idon't deserve anything, no supper and no--no Rose Mary to care whetherI'm hungry or not and no--"
"But I put the supper up," said Rose Mary, with a little laugh andcatch in her voice. "I couldn't let you be hungry, even if you didtreat me that way."
"Didn't Jennie Rucker come to tell you I couldn't get here tosupper?" asked Everett with what he felt to be a contemptible feint ofdefense.
"Yes, she came; but you knew we were going to have company and that Iwanted you to be here. You know Mr. Newsome is the best friend we havein the world and your staying away meant that you didn't care if hehad been good to us. It hurt me! And the first bowl of lilacs was onthe table; I had been saving them for a surprise for you for two days,and everything was so good and just as you like it and--" Rose Mary'svoice faltered again and a little tear splashed on the saucer she heldpoised in her hand.
"Well," answered Everett, like a sulky boy, "I didn't want any of theHonorable Gid Newsome's lilacs or waffles or fried chicken, and Ididn't want to see you fix any coffee for him," he ended by blurtingout.
"I didn't--I--that is--you are _horrid_," answered Rose Mary, but sheraised her eyes to his in which smiles waltzed around with tears andthe glint of her white teeth showed through red lips cu
rling withlaugh that was forcing itself over them by way of the dimple in thecorner of her chin. "Anyway, what I have here on the top of the stoveis your waffles and your fried chicken, and these are your lilacs,"and she drew out a purple spray from her belt and dropped it on thetable beside him. "Sit down and I'll give it all to you right herewhile I finish wiping the dishes. Mag was taken with a spell beforesupper was over and had to go lie down and I stayed to finish thingswhile the others went over to the speaking," she added as she began tobustle about with her usual hospitable concern.
"You are an angel, Rose Mary Alloway," said Everett as he placedhimself on a split-bottom kitchen chair, bestowed his long legs underthe table and drew up as near to Rose Mary and her dish-towel as waspossible to be sure of keeping out of the flirt. "And I--I'm abrute," he added contritely, though he dared a quick kiss on the barearm next and close to him.
"No, you're not--just a boy," answered Rose Mary, as she set hissupper on the table before him. She had poured his coffee, stirred inthe cream and sugar and then laid the spoon decorous and straight inthe saucer beside the cup. For an instant Everett sat very still andlooked at her, then she picked up the cup and tipped it against herlips, sipped judiciously and set it down with a satisfied air. Forjust a second her eyes had gleamed down at him over the edge of thecup and a tiny laugh gurgled in her throat as she swallowed her sip ofhis beverage.
"That was mine, anyway--he can have his chicken wings," said Everettwith a laugh as he began operations on the food before him.
"It wasn't a very nice party," answered Rose Mary as she went on withher work on the pile of china. "Stonie acted awfully. He piled up hisplate with pieces of chicken, and when Aunt Viney reproved him hesaid he was saving it for you. And Aunt Viney said she was sure youwere sick, and then Uncle Tucker wanted to go look for you and I hadto tell him before them all that you had sent me word. Then AuntAmandy said she was afraid you were not a Prohibitionist, and AuntViney said she would have to talk to you in the morning. Then they alltold Mr. Newsome all about you, and I don't think he liked it muchbecause he likes to tell us things about himself. We are so fond ofhim, and we always want to hear him talk about where he has been andwhat he has done. I tried to stop them and make him talk, but Icouldn't. It's strange how liking a person gets them on your mind sothat even if you don't talk about them you think about them all thetime, isn't it? But I oughtn't to blame them, for I was so afraid theywouldn't leave enough of things for you that I forgot to talk myself.I was glad Stonie acted that way about the chicken, for the piece hesaved made three pieces of white meat for you. Oh, please let'shurry, because we will miss the speaking if we don't. Mr. Newsomemakes such beautiful speeches that I want you to hear him. Is thereany kind of pride in the world like that you have over your friends?"
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