Part 5 (1/2)
Janice could not call at the little grocery on the side street until Friday afternoon when she returned from Middletown for over Sunday.
While the roads were so bad that she could not use her car in which to run back and forth to the seminary she boarded during the school days near the seminary.
But 'Rill Drugg and little Lottie were continually in her mind. From Walky Dexter, with whom she rode home to Polktown on Friday, she gained some information that she would have been glad not to hear.
”Talk abeout the 'woman with the sarpint tongue,'” chuckled Walky. ”We sartain sure have our share of she in Polktown.”
”What is the matter now, Walky?” asked Janice, gaily, not suspecting what was coming. ”Has somebody got ahead of you in circulating a particularly juicy bit of gossip?”
”Huh!” snorted the expressman. ”I gotter take a back seat, _I_ have.
Did ye hear 'bout Hopewell Drugg gittin' drunk, an' beatin' his wife, an' I dunno but they say by this time that it's his fault lettle Lottie's goin' blind again----”
”Oh, Walky! it can't be true!” gasped the girl, horrified.
”What can't? That them old hens is sayin' sech things?” demanded the driver.
”That Lottie is truly going blind?”
”Dunno. She's in a bad way. Hopewell wants to send her back to Boston as quick's he can. I know that. And them sayin' that he's turned inter a reg'lar old drunk, an' sich.”
”What do you mean, Walky?” asked Janice, seriously. ”You cannot be in earnest. Surely people do not say such dreadful things about Mr.
Drugg?”
”Fact. They got poor old Hopewell on the dissectin' table, and the way them wimmen cut him up is a caution to cats!”
”What women, Walky?”
”His blessed mother-in-law, for one. And most of the Ladies Aid is a-follerin' of her example. They air sayin' he's nex' door to a ditch drunkard.”
”Why, Walky Dexter! n.o.body would really believe such talk about Mr.
Drugg,” Janice declared.
”Ye wouldn't think so, would ye? We've all knowed Hopewell Drugg for years an' years, and he's allus seemed the mildest-mannered pirate that ever cut off a yard of turkey-red. But now--Jefers-pelters! ye oughter hear 'em! He gits drunk, beats 'Rill Scattergood, _that was_, and otherwise behaves himself like a hardened old villain.”
”Oh, Walky! I would not believe such things about Mr. Drugg--not if he told them to me himself!” exclaimed Janice.
”An' I reckon n.o.body would ha' dreamed sech things about him if Marm Scattergood hadn't got home from Skunk's Holler. I expect she stirred up things over there abeout as much as her son and his wife'd stand, and they s.h.i.+pped her back to Polktown. And Polktown--includin'
Hopewell--will hafter stand it.”
”It is a shame!” cried Janice, with indignation. Then she added, doubtfully, remembering the unfortunate incident she and Marty and Mrs.
Scattergood had viewed so recently: ”Of course, there isn't a word of truth in it?”
”That Hopewell's become a toper and beats his wife?” chuckled Walky.
”Wal--I reckon not! Maybe Hopewell takes a gla.s.s now and then--I dunno. I never seen him. But they _do_ say he went home airly from the dance at Lem Parraday's t'other night in a slightly elevated condition. Haw! haw! haw!”
”It is nothing to laugh at,” Janice said severely.
”Nor nothin' ter cry over,” promptly returned Walkworthy Dexter.
”What's a drink or two? It ain't never hurt _me_. Why should it Hopewell?”