Pippin; A Wandering Flame

by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

  CHAPTER V

  CYRUS POOR FARM

  Another lifelong possession for Pippin was that first supper at CyrusPoor Farm. "I never forget a good meal!" he was wont to say. "It's oneof the gifts, or so I count it; we've no call to forget 'em, justbecause we've eat 'em up. I think about 'em oftentimes, travelin', andenjoy 'em over again."

  The long table was set in the wide doorway of the shed, "for coolth,"Mrs. Bailey said. All around were piles of fragrant wood, birch and oak,with here and there a precious little store of apple wood, fruit ofJacob's thrifty pruning and thinning. The table itself, in the fulllight of the westering sun, glowed with many colors: rosy pink of boiledham, dull brown of baked potatoes, rich russet of doughnuts, all set offby the vivid red of the Turkey cotton tablecloth.

  Pippin drew a long breath as he surveyed his plate, heaped with thesolids of this repast, the lighter eatables ranged round it in nappiesshaped like a bird's bath. "Lord, _make_ me thankful!" he ejaculated."If I wasn't thankful, Mr. Bailey, sir, I'd ask you to take me by thescruff and heave me out, I would so!"

  "Well, son, well!" responded Jacob comfortably. "We aim to set a goodtable, m' wife an' I; glad it suits you. You see," he added, "we haveadvantages over many other institutions. Some of our inmates is payin'boarders, sir, payin' boarders, and behooves us set palatable foodbefore 'em. Why, some of us pays as high as two dollars a week, don'twe?" He smiled round the table. Pippin flung a quick glance, saw twosharp noses proudly lifted, two pairs of eyes gleaming withsatisfaction, while the serene dignity of the blind man's countenanceproclaimed him third of the paying boarders.

  "I've allers paid where I boarded!" said Miss Lucilla Pudgkins.

  "I would scorn to do otherwise!" said Aunt Mandy Whetstone.

  "And others that doesn't pay in money pays in help!" Jacob Bailey wenton calmly; "so you see we're all comfortable! A little more of the ham,Pippin? Pass your plate!"

  "I don't know," said Pippin, complying, "I don't really know as I evereat a ham to compare to this, Mr. Bailey. It's--it's _rich_, that's whatit is!"

  A new voice spoke from the bottom of the table, that of a fat old manwith a game leg. "I claim," he said huskily, as if there were crumbs inhis throat, "that it's the second best ham I've ever ate here."

  "The _third_ best!" said the blind man calmly. "The fire got low on meone night, and the smoke was checked. We had a ham last year and onefive years ago that was some better than this."

  "Green grass!" ejaculated Pippin in amazement. "Do you mean to tellme--"

  "We're right proud of Mr. Brand here to the Farm!" said Mrs. Baileygently. "Wantin' his sight has give him wonderful powers of smell andtaste--and touch, too. He has smoked our hams and bacon for twentyyears, haven't you, Mr. Brand?"

  "I have, ma'am!" said the blind man proudly.

  "We make good profit out'n 'em," said Jacob. "Far and near, folks wantsour hog p'dooce. Mr. Brand is money in the bank for the Farm and forhimself, too."

  As they left the table, a little cold hand was slipped into Pippin's.

  "Sing!" said the girl. "Please sing for Flora May!"

  "Why, sure!" Pippin was beginning; but Jacob Bailey broke in kindly butfirmly:

  "Not the minute he's finished his supper, he can't sing, Flora May!" hesaid. "Beside, I promised old Mr. Blossom to fetch Pippin in to seehim."

  "Old Mr. _who_?" cried Pippin.

  "He said you'd know the name," chuckled Jacob. "This way, Pippin! He'spretty feeble, the old man is. Keeps his bed mostly, now."

  For one moment Pippin hung back. Another! First Nipper, and now--Old ManBlossom, too! Old boozer, old snipe! Was he goin' to meet up with thesefolks right along, think? Wouldn't he ever get rid of 'em?

  "Shut up! If the Lord can stand 'em, I expect you can!" and Pippinfollowed Mr. Bailey into a clean bare little room, where, propped onpillows, lay a clean old man. He looked eagerly up as Jacob entered."You got him with you?" he asked querulously. "You got Pippin? I heardhis voice--"

  "You did, Daddy Blossom!" Pippin advanced and took the hand that wasplucking nervously at the coverlet. "You heard Pippin, and now you seehim! Well! well! And who ever thought of meetin' up with you here,Daddy? And sick, too! but if I had to _be_ sick, I wouldn't ask nopleasanter place--" He turned to smile at Jacob Bailey, but Jacob haddisappeared, and the door was closing softly.

  "Pardoned out!" whispered the old man in his weak fretful voice."Pardoned out, 'count of age and sickness. I ain't a well man, Pippin;my vitals is all perished; but that ain't what I want to say. I want youto help me! Say you'll help me, Pippin! I was always friends with youover There--" he nodded vaguely--"and now I'm old and sick, you'll helpme, won't you?"

  "Sure!" Pippin drew a stool beside the bed and sat down. "Put a name toit, Old Man! What can I do for you?"

  "Find my little gal, Pippin, my Mary: you rec'lect her? Sure you do! Sheused to bring me candy, and poke it in betwixt the bars with her littlehand--flowers too, she'd bring: sure you rec'lect little Mary, Pippin?"

  Pippin did not, but there was no need of saying so.

  "What about her, Old Man?"

  "I want her! I ain't a well man, nor yet I ain't goin' to be well, and Iwant my little gal; I want you to find her, Pippin, and bring her tome."

  "Sure!" said Pippin comfortably. "Where would I be likely--"

  "I don't know!" cried the old man wildly. "That--" he gave a brief andvivid sketch of his wife's character--a wholly inaccurate sketch--"neverwould tell me where she sent her. She died herself, and a good job, too,and she sent word to me that Mary was well and doin' well, but now she'dgot shet of me she was goin' to keep her shet. Now what a way that wasto talk to a father! If little Mary knowed where I was, she'd come likea shot, but she don't know, nor I don't know--You find her, Pippin! Yourec'let the little gal: you'll find her, won't you?"

  "Sure!" said Pippin. For some moments he sat absently, running hisfingers through his brown curls. Taking out the little file, heconsidered it unseeingly, tried to whistle a tune on it, and failing,returned it to its hiding place. Then, waking from his reverie, he putthe old man through a sharp examination. The answers were feeble anduncertain, but he learned something. Eighteen year old, or mighty nighit. Yes, red hair, or--naw! it might be darker by now, like her ma'swas; color of--there! 'member old Mis' Jennings that lived just over theway from There? Well, sir, she had a heifer, kind o' red brown, like ahoss chestnut when you break it open; and her skin the white of one,too, kind o' soft and creamy; and her eyes like her'n too (the heifer's,Old Man Blossom meant), big and soft and blue with a kind of brown in'em too--there! he'd know her, Pippin would, by the dimple right cornerof her little mouth. Cur'us thing that was. When she wasn't more than ababy, 'bout two year old, he gave her a little sunshade--she see herMa's and hollered for it, and he said she should have one of her own;pink it was, and she carried it like the Lady of the Land, sir. Butbimeby she tumbles down, and the p'int of it went right through hercheek. That's right; instead of a scar, it made a dimple, paint him skyblue striped if it didn't. Prettiest little gal--hair would curl roundyour finger like 'twas a stick--

  The whisper broke into crying, and Pippin had to soothe him and sing"The Factor's Lady, or the Turkish Garland," all through to restoretranquillity. But when Pippin rose to go, the old man clutched him withtrembling fingers.

  "Whisper!" he said. "Whisper, Pippin! The way you go to work--the wayI'd go to work if I wasn't perished in my vitals"--he consigned hisvitals to a warm region--"is, take Brand along!"

  "Brand?" repeated Pippin.

  "The blind man! he has eyes in his fingers. He can--he can tell the waythe wind blew yesterday by feelin' of it to-day. If I'd had Brand I'dnever been nabbed, and I'd be rollin' in gold to-day, and goin' in myautomobile to find my little gal. But you get Brand along, Pippin! talkhim round first, he's never been in the sportin' line, but--"

  "Hold on! hold on!" Pippin loosed the clutching hands gently, and laidthe poor old sinner, still gasping and whispering back on the pillow."Old
Man, you're makin' one big mistake. I'm not in the line any more; Iguess not!" He threw back his head and laughed joyously. "You didn'tknow I found the Lord, did you? Well, I have, and there's no more sportin mine. But--I'll tell you! I'm runnin' a wheel at present,knife-grindin', you know. Why--I've got Nipper's wheel! Nipper was a palof yours, wasn't he?"

  "Nipper's wheel? Where's Nipper? Is he here?"

  "He's dead, and before he went he gave me his wheel. It's a realhandy--what now?"

  He paused, for the old man, after staring at him a moment, broke into afit of cackling, wheezing laughter.

  "Nipper's wheel!" he gasped. "He's got Nipper's wheel, and he's foundthe Lord, and he isn't in the line no more! Gorry to hemlock, this isrich! You took me in complete, Pippin, you did so! Go on! You're allright!"

  He grew purple in the face, and his eyes rolled. Pippin stepped to thedoor.

  "Mr. or Mrs. Bailey!" he called quietly. "Mr. Blossom is having a fit!"

  Mrs. Bailey, hastening in, surveyed the situation with practised eyes;lifted the patient, thumped his back gently, administered remedies,enjoined silence.

  "You've ben talkin' too much, Mr. Blossom; it always brings on a spasm,and you hadn't ought to. Now lay down and take a nap, that's a goodsoul."

  Obeying a glance of her kind gray eyes, Pippin slipped out, leaving theold man still gasping and gurgling. Many more of them kind, Pippinreflected, would carry the old geezer off, sure thing. He was on theblink, no two ways to that. "Loony too! Hear him laffin' fit to bustwhen I told him Nipper was dead! Now what do you know about that? That'sloony, you see, that is! Behooves me find that little gal pooty quick ifI'm goin' to find her. And how--in--Moses' meal-chist--am I goin' tofind her?"

  Pondering deeply, he went back into the kitchen. The table had beencleared and covered with its decent between-meals cloth of red and whitecheck; beside it, facing the door, sat Miss Amanda Whetstone and MissLucilla Pudgkins, diligently mending stockings. These ladies, as hasbeen seen, were paying boarders, and "demeaned themselves accordin'," asthey would have said. They helped Mrs. Bailey in housework, mending,etc., but always with a touch of condescension and the understandingthat it was "to accommodate." In person they were well contrasted. MissWhetstone was a thin active little woman, with eyes like black glass andthin lips puckered in a sub-acid smile. She was always neat as wax, indresses of black and white striped print, the lines so near togetherthat they seemed to waver constantly. ("Throw her away!" Flora May oftenbesought her "Uncle Bailey." "Please throw her away! She dazzles!") Butevery one knew Aunt Mandy had a black silk in her trunk, and a tattingcollar that the minister's wife might have been glad to possess.

  Miss Lucilla Pudgkins was billowy in figure and was addicted to purpleprint, with a string tied round the middle to show that she knew wherethe waist line ought to be. Her face might have been made by a cleverboy out of a large red apple; and if Aunt Mandy's eyes were like glass,Miss Lucilla's were like china, two blue china buttons plumped into thered, on either side of the queerest button of a nose that ever was seen,Pippin thought. She wore a rather pathetic "front," which was seldomquite straight; in fact, she was a pathetic figure altogether, poor MissLucilla, but she did not know it, so all was well. She never forgot thatat sixteen she had been Queen of the May at a Sunday school festival,and her trunk still held, under the scanty stock of petticoats andaprons, the white muslin frock of her great day. Miss Lucilla was alittle greedy, and somewhat foolish, though not so foolish as Aunt Mandythought her; the attitude of the two towards each other was usually anarmed truce, except on occasions of general conflict, when they neverfailed to combine against the common enemy--usually Mr. Wisk, the fatman, who was greedy too.

  The two ladies looked up eagerly as Pippin entered. How was Mr. Blossom?Miss Whetstone asked. He sounded something awful. Was it the deathspasm, did Mr. Pippin think? They had been expecting it any day, andwishing his folks would come. Wasn't it awful?

  "He's all right!" Pippin reassured her. "Choked up a bit, but Mis'Bailey knows how to handle him. He'll rest easy now, poor old skeezicks.How long has he ben this way, ladies?"

  "Sit down, do, Mr. Pippin!" Miss Whetstone hastened to make room for himbeside her. "That cheer is comfortable; set right down, now do so! Hehas been having those spasms ever since he come, a month and more ago,but none so bad as this. Be you kin to him?"

  "Me? Not much!" Pippin shook his head vigorously.

  "I only asked because one likes to know, you know, about the folks onehas to associate with. Of course you can keep yourself to yourself, andoftentimes so do, but any one ought to be sociable when they can, Iclaim."

  "Sure thing!" murmured Pippin absently, his eyes glancing over thespeaker's head to where Flora May sat rocking in her corner, her handsfolded in her lap, her eyes fixed on him with a curious intentness. Sheseemed to be calling him, he thought, though she made no sound. Henodded, with a friendly glance which said "Presently!" Impossible to goat this moment, for Miss Whetstone evidently had more to say. She wasbridling, and making little clucking noises in her throat, expressive(to herself, at least), of delicacy of feeling. Now speech came,preluded by a genteel titter, and accompanied by a glance round theroom, which took in the blind man quietly whittling splints in his ownspecial corner, and Flora May, rocking by the window, the latter with acompassionate depreciatory shrug of Miss Whetstone's shoulders.

  "We aim to be as select here as circumstances allow," said the lady. "Ofcourse it is a town institution, I am well aware of that; but Cyrus is aselect neighborhood, and there's no one feels any call to take boarders_except_ Mr. Bailey. You can see for yourself how it is, Mr. Pippin. Thehouse is large and his own family small. He is well connected, Jacob is;his mother was own cousin to mine, and so--we thought, me and MissPudgkins, we'd like you to understand just how we come to be here. Notbut what we could of went anywhere we pleased, if we _had_ pleased!"

  Pippin was aware of a certain wistfulness in the two pairs of eyes fixedon him. Now wouldn't that give you a pain? Poor old ladies!

  "I bet you could, ma'am!" he responded heartily. "I expect you couldpass all your time visitin' round, and find your welcome runnin' aheadof you like a houn' dog. But if you searched the country over, I bet youwouldn't find as pleasant a place as this. You show your taste, is whatI would say."

  The wistful eyes brightened as they exchanged glances. There was a pointto make with this young man; it had to be made with every newcomer.People _must_ know that they were here for convenience' sake, and thatalone!

  "I knew he would understand!" cried Miss Pudgkins. "He has that way. Isee it first thing. And bein' as it is, Mr. Pippin, we try to keep upthe _tone_, you see. Now Mr. Blossom--you say he's no kin to you? Well,to speak my mind--and Miss Whetstone holds with me--Mr. Blossom is _not_just the kind Cyrus folks is accustomed to. Has he--has he led a goodlife, are you aware?"

  Pippin smiled at her. "Well, no, lady, he ain't; not exactly to call it_good_, you know; not what _you_ would call good, though there never wasas much harm in the Old Man as in lots of others. But anyway," he added,"he's on the blink now, you see, liable to croak 'most any day, I shouldjudge, so it don't so much matter, does it?"

  "Liable to--I beg your pardon?"

  "I beg yours. No expression to use to ladies. Pass away is what I wouldsay. I expect his trick is about up, what say? Dandy place to pass awayin, too, when your time's come. Excuse me, ladies, I see Mr. Bailey--"

  Pippin saw also his opportunity of escape, and with a little bow ofapology, and appreciation, slipped out of the door, thinking to join hishost who had just walked past it. But Jacob Bailey had alreadydisappeared in the shed, and it was Flora May's turn. She had followedPippin, and now stood before him, looking up at him with clear, lovely,empty eyes: empty, yet with that curious shining intentness he hadnoticed before.

  "Sing now for Flora May!" said the girl.

  "I will!" Pippin assured her. "Just the moment Mrs. Bailey gets throughwith Mr. Blossom, we'll have us a reg'lar singsong, we will so. Rea
lfond of singin', ain't you, Miss Flora May? Say, that's a dandy necklaceyou have on! Them beads are carved elegant, they sure are."

  Flora May lifted the beads and glanced carelessly at them. They were ofsome hard nut wood, each one adorned with flowers and fruit in delicatecarving: a pretty ornament enough.

  "Uncle Brand made them for me," she said. "Take them!" She had slippedthe necklace off and was pressing it into Pippin's hand. He took it andexamined it admiringly, then put it gently back over the girl's head.

  "I thank you a thousand times!" he said. "I couldn't wear 'em myself,not travelin' like I am, you see, and I like to see 'em round your neck,they look so pretty. It's young ladies ought to wear joolry, you know."

  He smiled at her, but her eyes met his anxiously.

  "You are not goin' away?" said the girl. "You are goin' to stay? I'llgive you my eagle feathers if you will stay. I'm tired of the folkshere."

  "Now what a way that is to talk! You're just jokin' though, I see. It_would_ be a joke if you was tired of Mr. and Mrs. Bailey, wouldn't itnow?"

  "I'll give you the white duck, if you'll stay!" she went on in her sweetmonotonous voice, which yet was strangely eager. "Uncle Bailey gave itto me, it's mine. I'll give you everything I've got if you'll stay."

  At this moment, to Pippin's infinite relief, Mr. Bailey emerged from theshed. He laid his hand on the girl's shoulder; instantly her whole formrelaxed and she drooped into her customary attitude of listlessindifference.

  "Anything wrong, little gal?" asked Jacob Bailey, kindly. Flora Mayshook her head and turned away with a pettish movement of her shoulders.

  "She was wantin' me to sing for her," said Pippin. "I will, too, Mr.Bailey, sir, soon as ever you and Mis' Bailey are ready. I don't mean tobrag of my singin', don't you think that, but it's what has ben give me,and about all I have to give when folks is so dandy to me as what youfolks have been here. So if agreeable, sir, say the word and I'll tuneup!"