Part 19 (1/2)
He gathered some hay and piled it on the dress, firing the heap.
Then he turned to his antagonist. ”Poor old boy! Hard luck, eh?
But I had to do it,” he said, and gave him decent interment at the end of the garden; washed his hands carefully and went into the house on pleasanter duties.
”I'll ask her now, by the great horn spoon!” said he, valiantly.
Miss Mattie was in a curious state of mind. There was an after effect from the fright, which made her tremble, and a remembrance of Cousin Will's actions which made her tremble more yet. When she heard him coming she started to fly, although now clothed beyond reproach, but her knees deserted her, and she was forced to sink back in her chair. Red came in whistling blithely--vainglorious man!
He had _his_ suspicions, generated by the peculiar fervour Miss Mattie had shown in regard to his hands.
”Mattie,” quoth he, ”I'm tired of living out there in the barn--I want a respectable house of my own.”
”Yes, Will,” replied Miss Mattie, astonished that he should choose such a subject at such a time.
”Yes,” he continued, ”and I want a wife, too. You often said you'd like to do something for me, Mattie; suppose you take the job?”
How much of glancing at a thing in one's mind as a beautiful improbability will ever make such a cold fact less astonis.h.i.+ng?
Miss Mattie eyed him with eyes that saw not; speech was stricken from her.
Red caught fright. He sprang forward and took her hand. ”Couldn't you do it, Mattie?” said he. There was a world of pleading in the tone. Miss Mattie looked up, her own honest self; all the little feminine shrinkings left her immediately.
”Ah, but I _could_, Will!” she said. Lettis came up on the stoop unheard. He stopped, then gingerly turned and made his way back on tip-toe, holding his arms like wings.
”Well, by George!” he murmured, ”I'll come back in a little while, when I'll be more welcome.”
He spoke to Red in strong reproach that night, in the barn. ”You never told me a word, you old sinner!” said he.
”Tell you the honest truth, Let,” replied Red earnestly, looking up from drawing off a boot, ”I didn't know it myself till you told me about it.”
They talked it all over a long time before blowing out the light, but then the little window shut its bright eye, and the only life the mid-night stars saw in Fairfield was Miss Mattie, her elbow on the cas.e.m.e.nt, looking far, far out into the tranquil night, and thinking mistily.
THE END
By Stewart Edward White
THE BLAZED TRAIL
Mr. White has intermingled the romance of the forests with the romance of a man's heart, making a story that is big and elemental, while not lacking in sweetness and tenderness. It is an epic of the life of the lumbermen in the great forests of the Northwest, permeated in every line by out-of-door freshness and the glory of the labor of the struggle with nature. It will appeal to everyone who cares for trees, the forests or the open air.
”Mr. White has the power to make you feel the woods as the masters of salt-water fiction make you feel the sea.”--_The Boston Herald_.