Part 22 (2/2)
Poor Bud Stucky, the shadow of his former self, was lying on the bed.
His thin hands were crossed on his breast, and the pallor of death was on his emaciated face. His mother sat by the bed with her eyes fixed on his. She made no sign when Helen entered, but continued to gaze on her son.
The young woman, bent on a mission of mercy, paused on the threshold, and regarded the two unfortunates with a sympathy akin to awe. Bud Stucky moved his head uneasily, and essayed to speak, but the sound died away in his throat. He made another effort. His lips moved feebly; his voice had an unearthly, a far-away sound.
”Miss,” he said, regarding her with a piteous expression in his sunken eyes, ”I wish you'd please, ma'am, make maw let me go.” He seemed to gather strength as he went on. ”I'm all ready, an' a-waitin'; I wish you'd please, ma'am, make 'er let me go.”
”Oh, what can I do?” cried Helen, seized with a new sense of the pathos that is a part of the humblest human life.
”Please, ma'am, make 'er let me go. I been a-layin' here ready two whole days an' three long nights, but maw keeps on a-watchin' of me; she won't let me go. She's got 'er eyes nailed on me constant.”
Helen looked at the mother. Her form was wasted by long vigils, but she sat bolt upright in her chair, and in her eyes burned the fires of an indomitable will. She kept them fixed on her son.
”Won't you please, ma'am, tell maw to let me go? I'm so tired er waitin'.”
The plaintive voice seemed to be an echo from the valley of the shadow of death. Helen, watching narrowly and with agonized curiosity, thought she saw the mother's lips move; but no sound issued therefrom. The dying man made another appeal:
”Oh, I'm so tired! I'm all ready, an' she won't let me go. A long time ago when I us' ter ax 'er, she'd let me do 'most anything, an' now she won't let me go. Oh, Lordy! I'm so tired er waitin'! Please, ma'am, ax 'er to let me go.”
Mrs. Stucky rose from her chair, raised her clasped hands above her head, and turned her face away. As she did so, something like a sigh of relief escaped from her son. He closed his eyes, and over his wan face spread the repose and perfect peace of death.
Turning again toward the bed, Mrs. Stucky saw Helen weeping gently. She gazed at her a moment. ”Whatter you cryin' fer now?” she asked with unmistakable bitterness. ”You wouldn't a-wiped your feet on 'im. Ef you wuz gwine ter cry, whyn't you let 'im see you do it 'fore he died? What good do it do 'im now? He wa'n't made out'n i'on like me.”
Helen made no reply.
She placed her basket on the floor, went out into the sunlight, and made her way swiftly back to Waverly. Her day's experience made a profound impression on her, so much so that when the time came for her to go home, she insisted on going alone to bid Mrs. Stucky good-by.
She found the lonely old woman sitting on her door-sill. She appeared to be gazing on the ground, but her sun-bonnet hid her face. Helen approached, and spoke to her. She gave a quick upward glance, and fell to trembling. She was no longer made of iron. Sorrow had dimmed the fire of her eyes. Helen explained her visit, shook hands with her, and was going away, when the old woman, in a broken voice, called her to stop.
Near the pine-pole gate was a little contrivance of boards that looked like a bird-trap. Mrs. Stucky went to this, and lifted it.
”Come yer, honey,” she cried, ”yer's somepin' I wanter show you.”
Looking closely, Helen saw molded in the soil the semblance of a footprint. ”Look at it, honey, look at it,” said Mrs. Stucky; ”that's his darlin' precious track.”
Helen turned, and went away weeping. The sight of that strange memorial, which the poor mother had made her shrine, leavened the girl's whole after-life.
When Helen and her aunt came to take their leave of Azalia, their going away was not by any means in the nature of a merry-making. They went away sorrowfully, and left many sorrowful friends behind them. Even William, the bell-ringer and purveyor of hot batter-cakes at Mrs.
Haley's hotel, walked to the railroad station to see them safely off.
General Garwood accompanied them to Atlanta; and though the pa.s.senger depot in that pus.h.i.+ng city is perhaps the most unromantic spot to be found in the wide world--it is known as the ”Car-shed” in Atlantese--it was there that he found courage to inform Miss Eustis that he purposed to visit Boston during the summer in search not only of health, but of happiness; and Miss Eustis admitted, with a reserve both natural and proper, that she would be very happy to see him.
It is not the purpose of this chronicle to follow General Garwood to Boston. The files of the Boston papers will show that he went there, and that, in a quiet way, he was the object of considerable social attention. But it is in the files of the ”Brookline Reporter” that the longest and most graphic account of the marriage of Miss Eustis to General Garwood is to be found. It is an open secret in the literary circles of Boston that the notice in the ”Reporter” was from the pen of Henry P. Ba.s.sett, the novelist. It was headed ”Practical Reconstruction”; and it was conceded on all sides that, even if the article had gone no farther than the head-line, it would have been a very happy description of the happiest of events.
THE END
<script>