Part 18 (1/2)

wrapper--I'll have two dollars to add to the fund. Why, Leslie, I'd pretty nearly sell the dress off my back to raise money to-day!”

”Well, I know I'd do that, with half the reason for it that we have now. Dresses are a bother, anyway”--my habit was too short and too tight, not having kept pace with my growth--”but, all the same, I hate to see you working so hard. You've really grown thin and pale lately,”

I added.

”It won't be for long; I'll soon be through with it now--” Jessie was beginning, when a cheerful voice from the doorway echoed her words:

”No; it won't be for long! That's a comfort, ain't it?”

We both started. We had been so engrossed that we had heard no one approaching, and, even if we had, we could scarcely have been less startled, for the man leaning comfortably against the door-jamb was Jacob Horton. It had been many weeks since he had, to our knowledge, set foot on our premises.

”Good morning, Miss Jessie and Leslie,” he began affably. ”Nice morning, ain't it? I've been living in this valley going on eight year, and I don't recollect as ever I see a nicer mornin' than this is.”

He put one foot upon the door sill--a suggestive att.i.tude--but neither of us invited him to enter. He was not easily daunted, however. The hand that rested against the door-jamb was still bandaged, and, as I made out with a swift glance, a b.u.t.ton was still missing from his coat. It was the coat that he had worn on the night that he had ostensibly salted the cattle in the far pasture. From his point of observation Mr. Horton, turning slightly, threw an admiring glance around. The glance seemed to include the outer prospect as well as the inner.

”This is a sightly place for a house, ain't it?” he remarked. ”I do'no--I really do'no but I'd like that knoll t'other side the river just as well, though, and it would be nigher the spring. I'll speak to my wife about it; if she likes this spot better, why, here our house goes up. I shan't object. We can move this contraption that your father built, back for a hen house, or a pig-pen; just as she says. I always try to please my wife.”

”When you get ready, perhaps you'll kindly tell us what you are talking about, Mr. Horton,” Jessie said, rising from the sewing machine and going toward the door, whither I followed her.

”Tell you? Oh, yes, I forgot. Of course you girls can't be expected to know--young as you be--that you can't hold this claim. This claim was open for re-entry the day that your father was drowned. I wasn't ready to take it up just then; I am ready now. Odd, ain't it? I've been hearin' some talk--my wife told me, in fact--that you girls had laid out to go down to the land office with your witnesses to offer final proof to-morrow; Well, now--he, he! That's a reg'lar joke, for if you'll believe it, to-morrow's the day I've set to go down and file on this claim, 'count of it's being vacant! I don't s'pose, now, that you girls are reely in earnest about trying to keep the place? It would be a sight of trouble to you, even if the law would allow it, which it won't.”

”Why not, Mr. Horton?” I asked.

”Why not? Wal', I don't know just why; I didn't make the homestead laws--reasonable laws they be, though; I couldn't 'a' made better ones myself--but I can tell you two girls one big, fundamental clause, so to speak, of the Homestead Act, under which you don't come--yes, two of 'em. First, foremost, and enough to swamp your whole outfit, if there was nothing else, you ain't neither of you of age. Second, not being of age, you ain't neither of you the head of a family.”

I looked at Mr. Horton's bandaged hand, and a thrill of genuine delight went through me, as I hastened to dispute one of his fundamental clauses.

”Jessie is the head of a family, Mr. Horton--Ralph and I are her family.”

”Maybe! Maybe! I s'pose, no doubt, you regard yourselves in that light. No harm's done, as long as you keep it to yourselves, but you'll find that the law won't recognize you in that way. The law's everlastin' partic'lar about such things. But, again, there's the matter of your both being under age! Now, what a misfortune that is to you--s'posing that you're in earnest about wanting to keep this place, but I reckon you ain't--if you recollect, you two, I've always said that I'd have this place. It may save you some trouble and expense, if I say right here and now, that I mean to have it! I mean to have it!

Don't forget that! But I ain't a hard man--not at all--and I'm willing to make it as easy as I can for you. Why, I could 'a' filed on this any time since your pa died, but I didn't, and why not?”

”If you ask me,” I said, speaking very quietly, though I was trembling with indignation, ”I suppose you didn't file on it because you thought it would be better to let us get a crop in before you did it; then you could steal the crop along with the place.”

”Leslie!” Jessie exclaimed, aghast.

But Mr. Horton's thin lips parted in a wolfish smile. ”Oh--ho! you're up on the homestead laws to some extent, I see. Crops do go with the land when the claimant forfeits his right to the land that bears them.

Your father, he forfeited his right by getting drownded, and no one has entered the claim since, so I'm about to enter it. As I said before I ain't a hard man, and I'm willing to make it as easy as I can for you, so I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll pay a fair price for such improvements as your father made. They don't amount to much--”

”But if you should decide to commute the claim, instead of waiting five years to prove up, it would be worth a good deal to you to be able to swear that such and such things had stood on the place so long, which you could not do if we took our improvements away; for we have a right to remove whatever we have built, if we do not keep the claim.”

Mr. Horton's narrow eyes rested on me with anything but a friendly expression. ”You're posted quite a consid'able; ain't you, Miss Smarty? Pity you didn't know jest a little mite more. Well; we won't quarrel over a little thing like that. I'll pay for the improvements, and you'll jest leave 'em where they are. This house, now, I'll take a look at it; it don't amount to much, that's so, but such as 'tis, I'll look at it.”

”You are welcome to do so,” Jessie a.s.sured him.

I think it came into her mind, as it certainly did into mine, that he wished to ascertain if the house were not lacking in some one or more of the essential equipments of a homesteader's claim. If he should discover such a lack his task would be all the easier. I ran over a hasty, furtive inventory on my fingers: ”Cat, clock, table, chairs, stove--”

The cat was lying comfortably outstretched on the window ledge, her head resting on the open pages of the Bible, that we had both neglected to replace. The clock ticked loudly from its place on the mantel-piece; there was a fire in the stove, and, absorbed in staring, Mr. Horton stumbled over one of the chairs. The result of his inspection did not please him; he scowled at the cat, who resented his glance by springing from the window and hissing spitefully at his legs as she pa.s.sed him on her way out. Her sudden spring drew our visitor's attention to the book on which her head had been resting; the written pages attracted his notice.