Fruits of the Earth

by Frederick Philip Grove

  Both Ruth and Abe were aware of these things. Ruth resented them; Abe, noticing that she did, took them with a humorous good nature which had often an ironical point. Suppose the children were noisy and Ruth tried vainly to quiet them. Abe waited till she had worked herself into a state of nervous excitement, the worse for his observant eye; then suddenly he would “settle them” by a word of command. His instant success had an effect as though he had said, “I’ll show you how to deal with them.” Ruth felt that it was easy for him to retain his power over them, but that he made no attempt of exerting it in her name or to her advantage. Although he corroborated her own demands, he did it in such a way as to damage her authority rather than to confirm it.

  On the rare occasions when Abe gave these things a definite thought, he realized his own lack of consideration; but somehow he seemed unable to remedy it. His regret was always retrospective; he could not foresee it. His material struggle absorbed him to the point where he had no energy left to ponder nice questions of conduct and to lay down rules to govern his intercourse with wife and children. When, in a flash of insight, this became clear to him, he postponed the difficulty. The “kids” were still small; he would take them in hand later; let him build up that farm first, an empire ever growing in his plans.

  There was another point of friction between him and Ruth: the house. Ruth did not forgive him the fact that the hired man of whom she disapproved had a better place to live in than herself. When Abe said that this was provisional, that one day he would build her a house which was to be the envy of everybody, she could not summon any enthusiasm; she wanted comfort, not splendour; convenience, not luxury. That was the reason, too, why she adopted an attitude hostile to the Nicolls; she envied them their house: but the Nicolls were mere peasants; she could not rid herself of the conceit of the city-born.

  She was city-born! In this she was handicapped.

  Abe had never expected Ruth to do any farm work, not even to carry water or fuel into the house. Winter or summer, he rose at four in the morning and started the fires. He milked the cows and fed the horses before he called her. But that call in the morning! In the first year of their marriage Abe had entered the bedroom and sat down on the edge of her bed, awakening her with a caress. Now he knocked at her door.

  She was aware that he had begun to look critically at her. She had caught herself wishing that she could make herself invisible; she was getting stout. Not that Abe said a word about it; but she knew he disliked stout women. Abe was heavy himself; he weighed two hundred and fifty pounds; but, being so tall, he did not look it. Ruth had been slender at the time of their marriage; as she began to put on weight, she had become shapeless as she called it. She suffered from it herself but resented Abe’s disapproval. Perhaps he never meant to convey such a disapproval. It was true that the bed which they had so far shared was becoming uncomfortable; but when Abe, in the fourth year, jestingly referred to the fact, his very jest offended her, the more so since, ostentatiously, he spoke only of his own increase in girth. “By golly! he said. “Work agrees with me. It’s about time we bought another bedstead so I can turn around without bumping you.” A week later he brought that new bedstead home; and henceforth they slept apart. Ruth cried.

  Nor was she unaware of her own shortcomings; she was getting less and less careful with regard to the common amenities of life. At first, she had omitted the white tablecloth only when Abe was absent from a meal. Why go to unnecessary trouble? It was hard enough to keep a house tidy which, with four children in it, was much too small. There was a kitchen cabinet; she had a good dinner-set; but, when pieces were broken, she replaced them with heavy white crockery, saving her better dishes for social occasions which never came. When Abe saw these substitutes for the first time, he lifted a cup in his hand and weighed it; but he never said a word. Next, to save steps, she took to washing the dishes in the dining and living room, leaving them on the table for the next meal. Then she left the white table-cloth out altogether, preferring oilcloth. The room took on a dingy appearance.

  In her dress, too, she became careless. Her house-frocks were ready-made, “out-size” garments bought from a catalogue. Feeling “driven,” she ceased changing her aprons at meal-time.

  Abe noticed all this. The more lordly his own domain grew to be, the less in keeping was his house. For weeks he never said a word, till his distaste reached an explosive pressure. He knew that it was dangerous to let a grievance rest till it has become impossible to discuss it in a pleasant way. But time and energy were lacking; he closed his eyes while he could. When calling on his sister at Morley, he scanned everything and compared the way in which Mary, with the help of a servant, ran her house. Mary rarely mentioned her husband; the doctor rarely mentioned his wife; but when they did so, they spoke of each other with a great considerateness; not exactly tenderly, but with an unvarying mutual respect which showed that they were at one on every question of importance. The great secret in the doctor’s life, the reason why he had given up his flourishing practice, lay between them as something jealously guarded from others’ eyes. Abe, presuming on his twinship, had one day half asked Mary about it; she had at once withdrawn. Abe wondered whether Ruth would be as reticent, as loyal as Mary. He himself never even hinted to Mary of his criticism of Ruth.

  Every now and then he tried to get Ruth to call on his sister. Mary had been at the farm; the doctor kept pony and buggy for her. But between the two women yawned an abyss. Neither could utter a word which found the other’s approval. Abe had hoped that Ruth would enter into neighbourly relations with Mrs. Nicoll, a huge, talkative, and pathetic woman who made him laugh. But Ruth was consciously isolating herself, making that a point of pride which had been a grievance. Abe mentioned it to her as a duty that she must call on the new-comer. “That woman and I have nothing in common,” she said. And this led to a “scene” between husband and wife.

  “Listen here,” Abe said. “You blame me for your isolation–”

  “Who says I do?”

  “Nobody needs to tell me. I feel it. You make me feel it.”

  “How, if you please?”

  Abe stood helpless, uncomfortably aware that Charlie’s eyes were on him from a corner of the dusky room. He paced up and down on the far side of the dining-table, Ruth standing in the door of the kitchen. Things pent up in his breast cried to be let out. He knew that this was the moment to shut them away in the depth of his heart; but he was consumed by the desire to revel in his misfortune. He also knew that, if he went over to Ruth and kissed her or patted her cheek, making her feel that she was something to him, he might easily win her co-operation in the endeavour to remove what was keeping them apart. He could not do so. “Oh!” he exclaimed, shrugging his powerful shoulders and raising his hands, “by a thousand little things, insignificant in themselves, that I can’t lay my hand on. You know.”

  “Perhaps I do,” she said, a white line around her lips. “But how about you? Don’t you show me every hour, every minute we spend together that you disapprove of me, of all I am?”

  Abe veered to face her, stung to the quick. What if she was right? He must conciliate her, or an abyss would open and swallow them. “Listen here,” he said, shaken, and his voice betrayed him.

  She sank into a chair by the door, covering her face with an apron. “Listen here,” he repeated, steadied. “I have my work. It takes every ounce of my strength; it takes every thought I am capable of.”

  She looked up, her eyes dry and red. “What is it all for?”

  He looked puzzled. “What is what all for?”

  “That work. I don’t know. To me it seems senseless, useless, a mere waste. Work, work, work! What for?”

  He was thunderstruck. She disapproved of him, of all he was. But his voice was even. “Don’t you know?”

  “I don’t. I had my misgivings. Farming! There are farms all over the country, down east. But I never dreamt of anything like this. It’s like being in prison, cast off by the world. Don’t hol
d Mary up to me. She despises me and thinks you a sort of half-god or hero. She looks at this shack and wonders how I can exist in it. She is right. I wonder myself. What can I do about it? This isn’t a country fit to live in.”

  “Exactly,” Abe said with rising anger. “I am making it into a country fit to live in. That is my task. The task of a pioneer. Can’t you see that I need time, time, time? In six years I’ve built a farm which produces wealth. Give me another six years, and I’ll double it. Then I’ll build you a house such as you’ve never dreamt of calling your own.”

  “I know, I know….”

  “If you know, what’s the fuss about? You said you didn’t know what the work was for. That’s it. To build up a place any man can be proud of, a place to leave to my children for them to be proud of.”

  Ruth looked up. “Where do I come in?”

  “Aren’t you going to profit by my labours?”

  “Profit! You probably pride yourself on being a good provider. You are. I’ve all I want except what I need: a purpose in life.”

  “Don’t you have the children?”

  She burst into tears.

  Abe drew a chair to the table and sat down by her side. Thence he caught sight of the boy. “Where is Jim?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, daddy.”

  “Go. Run along. Find Jim and play with him.”

  Obediently the child slipped from his chair and left the room, passing through the door into the dusk.

  “Listen here,” Abe said for the third time. “I am willing to do anything in my power. Do you want to read? Buy books or magazines? Whatever you wish. Why don’t you spend money on clothes, on pretty things such as girls and young women want?”

  “What for? For whom should I doll myself up? I am ugly. What’s the use? I am getting stout.”

  “I’ll tell you,” Abe went on. “Next time I go to Somerville, I’ll open an account for you at the new bank. I’ll deposit a couple of hundred. I’ll give you that much or more every year. To do with as you please. What you need, for yourself or the children, I’ll pay for. This is to be yours. I don’t want you to feel that you have to give an account of what it’s spent on. I won’t ask. I promise you that. Use it in any way you please. I know it’s hard, living that way, all by yourself. It will get better. The children will be company soon. That right?”

  Ruth did not answer; but she was drying her tears with her apron.

  Abe went to the door. “Charlie, Jim!” he called. “Bed-time.”

  And the children, who were only too well aware that something was or had been wrong, came in at once, casting furtive glances at their parents. They went straight to the bedroom.

  Abe returned to the barn where Bill Crane was milking.

  For a while things remained normal between man and wife. No more than normal; they kept swinging about the neutral point, with only one change, namely that both made an endeavour to smooth matters over by a mutual show of tolerance and consideration.

  But the essential difficulty was not removed. Abe was uncomfortably aware of the fact that, at the decisive moment, he had evaded the issue. But he had his hands full. The weed problem was becoming acute. As soon as the plough had done its work, the cultivator had to be started, followed by the drag; or the weeds would choke the wheat next year.

  Then came the harvest. It was a good year, but the work was not easy. The rains had been ample; the straw was heavy; and a new weed had made its appearance: wild buckwheat, commonly called bind-weed. Its long, tough vines wound themselves about wheels and sickles of the binder till the horses could no longer pull the machine. Ordinarily two men are kept busy stooking the sheaves which one binder cuts. This year, what with the delays met by the machine, that proportion was reversed: one good man could have kept up with two binders. But since Abe had fallowed a quarter section, he could not afford to buy new implements. He fretted when, a dozen times a day, he saw Bill and Nicoll going idle while he stood between horses and sickles and furiously cut and slashed at the choking weeds. At last, in order to keep two men busy where there was work only for one, he made them haul the sheaves from the west of the field to the east, to clear the stubble for ploughing. Even so, he knew he would be crowded for time.

  Summer and fall went by. Night after night Abe came home after dark–hot, dusty, exhausted. There was no time, no energy left to devote to his household; and the fact that he knew he was neglecting a thing of fundamental importance made him cross and monosyllabic. He began to have glimpses of the truth that his dream of economic success involved another dream: that of a family life on the great estate which he was building up. At the early age of thirty-six he had moments of an almost poignant realization of “the futility of it all.”

  When he threshed–rather late, for no thresherman cared to come into this district till the work in more settled areas was done–he was disappointed; in spite of heavy sheaves the crop averaged only nineteen bushels to the acre, with an acreage of only a quarter section. His income from this source was below two thousand five hundred dollars.

  Yet he deposited two hundred dollars in Ruth’s bank; and eight hundred he set aside for building. By the time he had paid his debt to the implement dealer and his taxes, reducing his indebtedness at the bank by half, he had nothing left. He told Ruth of his deposit to her credit and the sum set aside for enlarging the house; but he withheld the fact that he had been unable to balance his accounts. He expected her to express satisfaction at the growth of her account–or was it growing? But she received the announcement with a mere nod and, on the doubtful point, volunteered no information.

  Winter came. It had been Abe’s intention to use coal for fuel; but, being determined not to touch that eight hundred dollars, he made up his mind to haul wood once more. To do so, he had to go a distance of forty miles, for timber of a size sufficient to make the trip worth while could no longer be found at any point nearer than that. He had to stay out overnight. He left Bill at home to look after feeding and milking; for he did not trust him with any but routine work.

  Altogether, this was the most anxious winter he had spent on the farm. He resented it that he, a man farming three quarter sections, should have to make these long, tiring drives to save a hundred and fifty dollars. He never spent money unreasonably; yet he had to effect petty economies. He must have more land! He must get to a point where he farmed on a scale which would double his net income from a decreasing margin of profit. Nicoll’s way was not his. He could not be satisfied with the fact that, if he killed a pig and a calf in the fall, there was meat in the house. To him, farming was an industry, not an occupation.

  Spring came. He was planning to add two rooms to the house. Yet, since it was a makeshift–for never would he be satisfied with a patchwork house–he was unwilling to go to the expense involved. Still, Ruth must be considered.

  One day, just before it was time to overhaul the implements needed for the spring work, he stopped in town and called on his sister. The doctor was at the store, to which a fully equipped dispensary and drug department had just been added, an extension of the business urgently needed since the necessity of getting prescriptions filled still diverted a good deal of trade to Somerville.

  As Abe entered, Mary mentioned the fact of her husband’s absence.

  “That’s all right. It was you I wanted to see.”

  “Sit down, Abe.”

  “How does it look to you, Mary? Am I making progress?”

  Mary laughed. “You are the talk of the neighbourhood. Never was there a farmer like you, they say.”

  Abe felt comforted and encouraged. “Sometimes I am getting despondent. I am everlastingly short of money.”

  “Is not that very natural? You are always buying land and equipment.”

  “Not always…. I suppose it is foolish to worry.”

  “Look at what you have done. You have three quarter sections, clear, paid for. And such a barn.”

  “I have the money to add two bedrooms to the house. It
does seem necessary, does it not?”

  “Well–”

  “There isn’t room for Ruth to turn around in.”

  “Does she complain?”

  “No, no…I believe she resents the fact that Bill’s wife has a better place to live in than she. It’s only temporary, of course. The fact is, I hate to spend money on a makeshift which I’ll tear down in a year or two. I need an additional seeder and binder and God knows what.”

  Mary pondered. “I’ve always feared it. She doesn’t cooperate.”

  “I don’t say that,” Abe forestalled her hurriedly.

  “I know. I see what I see. Suppose I make another attempt?” She looked at Abe out of friendly eyes, from behind heavy-rimmed glasses.

  Abe mused dejectedly. Then he rose. “Perhaps–”

  “I’ll go to-morrow.”

  “Day after. I’ll have to go to Somerville. I’ve got to have that additional seeder before the work starts.”…

  On the last of March–there was still snow on the ground–Mary, in fur coat and close-fitting hat, alighted in the yard where Bill was sawing wood. He came to take horse and cutter. The three older children were playing about the granary. Frances, no doubt, was asleep.

  When Ruth opened to the knock, her lips tightened. She stepped back, inviting her sister-in-law by a gesture to enter; her very movement declined the other woman’s kiss.

  “Bill tells me Abe went away,” Mary said.

  “I believe he did. He isn’t in.”

  With a glance Mary had swept the interior of the room. Plates were inverted on the oilcloth of the table; cups in their saucers. It was a small room for the family of four children. Ruth seemed enormous in girth. Mary removed her glasses to wipe them. It was hard to begin. She had planned to admire things to find the way to Ruth’s heart. But there was nothing to admire. She resolved upon perfect frankness.

  “Ruth, I know it is hard. The fact is, Abe is living through a crisis.”