Part 4 (2/2)
”Law, Willie, are you up already?” she asked, as if unconscious of his nocturnal activities.
The reply was a wan smile.
”An' you've got the fire built, too,” went on Celestina cheerily. ”How nice!”
”Eh?” repeated he, giving her a vague stare. ”The fire?”
”Yes. I was sayin' how good it was of you to start it up.” The man gazed at her blankly.
”I ain't touched the fire,” he answered. ”I might have, though, as well as not, Tiny, if I'd thought of it.”
”That's all right,” Celestina declared, making haste to repair her blunder. ”I've plenty of time to lay it myself. 'Twas only that when I saw you settin' up before it I thought mebbe you'd built it 'cause you were cold.”
”I was cold,” acquiesced Willie, his eyes misty with thought. ”But I warn't noticin' there was no heat in the stove when I drew up here.”
Celestina bit her lip. How characteristic the confession was!
”Well, there'll be a fire now very soon,” said she, bustling out and returning with paper and kindlings. ”The kitchen will be warm as toast in no time. An' I'll make you some hot coffee straight away. That will heat you up. This northerly wind blows the cobwebs out of the sky, but it does make it chilly.”
Although Willie's eyes automatically followed her brisk motions and watched while she deftly started the blaze, it was easy to see that he was too deep in his own meditations to sense what she was doing.
Perhaps had his mood not been such an abstract one he would have realized that he was directly in the main thoroughfare and obstructing the path between the pantry and the oven. As it was he failed to grasp the circ.u.mstance, and not wis.h.i.+ng to disturb him, Celestina patiently circled before, behind and around him in her successive pilgrimages to the stove. Such situations were exigencies to which she was quite accustomed, her easy-going disposition quickly adapting itself to emergencies of the sort. So skilful was she in effacing her presence that Willie had no knowledge he was an obstacle until suddenly the iron door swung back of its own volition and in pa.s.sing brushed his knuckles with its hot metal edge.
”Ouch!” cried he, starting up from his chair.
”What's the matter?” called Celestina from the pantry.
”Nothin'. The oven door sprung open, that's all.”
”It didn't burn you?”
”N--o, but it made me jump,” laughed Willie. ”Why didn't you tell me, Tiny, that I was in your way?”
”You warn't in my way.”
”But I must 'a' been,” the man persisted. ”You should 'a' shoved me aside in the beginnin'.”
Stretching his arms upward with a comfortable yawn, he rose and sauntered toward the door.
”Now you're not to pull out of here, Willie Spence,” Celestina objected in a peremptory tone, ”until you've had your breakfast. You had none yesterday, remember, thanks to that pump; an' you had no dinner either, thanks to Zenas Henry's pump. You're goin' to start this day right.
You're to have three square meals if I have to tag you all over Wilton with 'em. I don't know what it is you've got on your mind this time, but the world's worried along without it up to now, an' I guess it can manage a little longer.”
Willie regarded his mentor good-humoredly.
”I figger it can, Celestina,” he returned. ”In fact, I reckon it will have to content itself fur quite a spell without the notion I've run a-foul of now.”
Celestina offered no interrogation; instead she said, ”Well, don't let it harrow you up; that's all I ask. If it's goin' to be a long-drawn-out piece of tinkerin', why there's all the more reason you should eat your three good meals like other Christians. Next you know you'll be gettin' run down, an' I'll be havin' to brew some dandelion bitters for you.” She came to an abrupt stop half-way between the oven and the kitchen table, a bowl and spoon poised in her hand. ”I ain't sure but it's time to brew you somethin' anyway,” she announced. ”You ain't had a tonic fur quite a spell an' mebbe 'twould do you good.”
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