Part 70 (2/2)
”Are you? For heaven's sake, why?”
”Oh, I don't know. When you've been goin' around ever since January loaded up to the muzzle with spite and sure-thing vengeance, same as an old-fas.h.i.+oned horse pistol used to be loaded with powder and ball, it must be kind of hard, just as you're set to pull trigger, to have to quit and swaller the whole charge.
Liable to give you dyspepsy, if nothin' worse, I should say.”
Grover smiled. ”The last time I saw Babbitt he appeared to be nearer apoplexy than dyspepsia,” he said.
”Ye-es. Well, I'm sorry for him, I really am. It must be pretty dreadful to be so cross-grained that you can't like even your own self without feelin' lonesome. . . . Yes, that's a bad state of affairs. . . . I don't know but I'd almost rather be 'town crank'
than that.”
The Major's farewell remark, made as he rose to go, contained an element of mystery.
”I shall have another matter to talk over with you soon, Jed,” he said. ”But that will come later, when my plans are more complete.
Good afternoon and thank you once more. You've been pretty fine through all this secret-keeping business, if you don't mind my saying so. And a mighty true friend. So true,” he added, ”that I shall, in all probability, ask you to a.s.sume another trust for me before long. I can't think of any one else to whom I could so safely leave it. Good-by.”
One more visitor came that afternoon. To be exact, he did not come until evening. He opened the outer door very softly and tiptoed into the living-room. Jed was sitting by the little ”gas burner”
stove, one knee drawn up and his foot swinging. There was a saucepan perched on top of the stove. A small hand lamp on the table furnished the only light. He did not hear the person who entered and when a big hand was laid upon his shoulder he started violently.
”Eh?” he exclaimed, his foot falling with a thump to the floor.
”Who? . . . Oh, it's you, ain't it, Sam? . . . Good land, you made me jump! I must be gettin' nervous, I guess.”
Captain Sam looked at him in some surprise. ”Gracious king, I believe you are,” he observed. ”I didn't think you had any nerves, Jed. No, nor any temper, either, until last night. You pretty nigh blew me out of water then. Ho, ho!”
Jed was much distressed. ”Sho, sho, Sam,” he stammered; ”I'm awful sorry about that. I--I wasn't feelin' exactly--er--first rate or I wouldn't have talked to you that way. I--I--you know I didn't mean it, don't you, Sam?”
The captain pulled forward a chair and sat down. He chuckled.
”Well, I must say it did sound as if you meant it, Jed,” he declared. ”Yes, sir, I cal'late the average person would have been willin' to risk a small bet--say a couple of million--that you meant it. When you ordered me to go home I just tucked my tail down and went. Yes, sir, if you didn't mean it you had ME fooled.
Ho, ho!”
Jed's distress was keener than ever. ”Mercy sakes alive!” he cried. ”Did I tell you to go home, Sam? Yes, yes, I remember I did. Sho, sho! . . . Well, I'm awful sorry. I hope you'll forgive me. 'Twan't any way for a feller like me to talk--to you.”
Captain Sam's big hand fell upon his friend's knee with a stinging slap. ”You're wrong there, Jed,” he declared, with emphasis.
”'Twas just the way for you to talk to me. I needed it; and,” with another chuckle, ”I got it, too, didn't I? Ho, ho!”
”Sam, I snum, I--”
”Sshh! You're goin' to say you're sorry again; I can see it in your eye. Well, don't you do it. You told me to go home and think, Jed, and those were just the orders I needed. I did go home and I did think. . . . Humph! Thinkin's a kind of upsettin' job sometimes, ain't it, especially when you sit right down and think about yourself, what you are compared to what you think you are.
Ever think about yourself that way, Jed?”
It was a moment before Jed answered. Then all he said was, ”Yes.”
”I mean have you done it lately? Just given yourself right up to doin' it?”
Jed sighed. ”Ye-es,” he drawled. ”I shouldn't wonder if I had, Sam.”
”Well, probably 'twan't as disturbin' a job with you as 'twas for me. You didn't have as high a horse to climb down off of. I thought and thought and thought and the more I thought the meaner the way I'd acted and talked to Maud seemed to me. I liked Charlie; I'd gone around this county for months braggin' about what a smart, able chap he was. As I told you once I'd rather have had her marry him than anybody else I know. And I had to give in that the way he'd behaved--his goin' off and enlistin', settlin' that before he asked her or spoke to me, was a square, manly thing to do. The only thing I had against him was that Middleford mess.
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