Part 29 (1/2)

”Why, what's the matter with the room?” he said. ”Just wait until I've got busy in it! I'm a paper hanger and a painter, and--”

”You're a dear, too,” said Edith.

So on the first of May he moved in, and for some evenings Political Economy and History and Travel and the rest gave way to anxious cuttings and fittings of wall paper, and a pungent odor of paint. The old house took on new life and activity, the latter sometimes pernicious, as when w.i.l.l.y Cameron fell down the cellar stairs with a pail of paint in his hand, or Dan, digging up some bricks in the back yard for a border the seeds of which were already sprouting in a flat box in the kitchen, ran a pickaxe into his foot.

Some changes were immediate, such as the white-was.h.i.+ng of the cellar and the unpainted fence in the yard, where w.i.l.l.y Cameron visualized, later on, great draperies of morning glories. He papered the parlor, and coaxed Mrs. Boyd to wash the curtains, although she protested that, with the mill smoke, it was useless labor.

But there were some changes that he knew only time would effect.

Sometimes he went to his bed worn out both physically and spiritually, as though the burden of lifting three life-sodden souls was too much.

Not that he thought of that, however. What he did know was that the food was poor. No servant had been found, and years of lack of system had left Mrs. Boyd's mind confused and erratic. She would spend hours concocting expensive desserts, while the vegetables boiled dry and scorched and meat turned to leather, only to bring pridefully to the table some flavorless mixture garnished according to a picture in the cook book, and totally unedible.

She would have ambitious cleaning days, too, starting late and leaving off with beds unmade to prepare the evening meal. Dan, home from the mill and newly adopting w.i.l.l.y Cameron's system of cleaning up for supper, would turn sullen then, and leave the moment the meal was over.

”h.e.l.l of a way to live,” he said once. ”I'd get married, but how can a fellow know whether a girl will make a home for him or give him this?

And then there would be babies, too.”

The relations between Dan and Edith were not particularly cordial. w.i.l.l.y Cameron found their bickering understandable enough, but he was puzzled, sometimes, to find that Dan was surrept.i.tiously watching his sister.

Edith was conscious of it, too, and one evening she broke into irritated speech.

”I wish you'd quit staring at me, Dan Boyd.”

”I was wondering what has come over you,” said Dan, ungraciously. ”You used to be a nice kid. Now you're an angel one minute and a devil the next.”

w.i.l.l.y spoke to him that night when they were setting out rows of seedlings, under the supervision of Jinx.

”I wouldn't worry her, Dan,” he said; ”it is the spring, probably. It gets into people, you know. I'm that way myself. I'd give a lot to be in the country just now.”

Dan glanced at him quickly, but whatever he may have had in his mind, he said nothing just then. However, later on he volunteered:

”She's got something on her mind. I know her. But I won't have her talking back to mother.”

A week or so after w.i.l.l.y Cameron had moved, Mr. Hendricks rang the bell of the Boyd house, and then, after his amiable custom, walked in.

”Oh, Cameron!” he bawled.

”Upstairs,” came w.i.l.l.y Cameron's voice, somewhat thickened with carpet tacks. So Mr. Hendricks climbed part of the way, when he found his head on a level with that of the young gentleman he sought, who was nailing a rent in the carpet.

”Don't stop,” said Mr. Hendricks. ”Merely friendly call. And for heaven's sake don't swallow a tack, son. I'm going to need you.”

”Whaffor?” inquired w.i.l.l.y Cameron, through his nose.

”Don't know yet. Make speeches, probably. If Howard Cardew, or any Cardew, thinks he's going to be mayor of this town, he's got to think again.”

”I don't give a tinker's dam who's mayor of this town, so long as he gives it honest government.”

”That's right,” said Mr. Hendricks approvingly. ”Old Cardew's been running it for years, and you could put all the honest government he's given us in a hollow tooth. If you'll stop that hammering, I'd like to make a proposition to you.”

w.i.l.l.y Cameron took an admiring squint at his handiwork.