"It isn"t," said Alexander Abraham stubbornly. "It is Angelina for me, and always will be. I shall never call you Peter. Angelina just suits you exactly; and Angelina Bennett would suit you still better. You must come back, Angelina. Mr. Riley is moping for you, and I can"t get along without somebody to appreciate my sarcasms, now that you have accustomed me to the luxury."
"What about the other five cats?" I demanded.
Alexander Abraham sighed.
"I suppose they"ll have to come too," he sighed, "though no doubt they"ll chase poor Mr. Riley clean off the premises. But I can live without him, and I can"t without you. How soon can you be ready to marry me?"
"I haven"t said that I was going to marry you at all, have I?" I said tartly, just to be consistent. For I wasn"t feeling tart.
"No, but you will, won"t you?" said Alexander Abraham anxiously.
"Because if you won"t, I wish you"d let me die of the smallpox. Do, dear Angelina."
To think that a man should dare to call me his "dear Angelina!" And to think that I shouldn"t mind!
"Where I go, William Adolphus goes," I said, "but I shall give away the other five cats for--for the sake of Mr. Riley."
IX. Pa Sloane"s Purchase
"I guess the mola.s.ses is getting low, ain"t it?" said Pa Sloane insinuatingly. "S"pose I"d better drive up to Carmody this afternoon and get some more."
"There"s a good half-gallon of mola.s.ses in the jug yet," said ma Sloane ruthlessly.
"That so? Well, I noticed the kerosene demijohn wasn"t very hefty the last time I filled the can. Reckon it needs replenishing."
"We have kerosene enough to do for a fortnight yet." Ma continued to eat her dinner with an impa.s.sive face, but a twinkle made itself apparent in her eye. Lest Pa should see it, and feel encouraged thereby, she looked immovably at her plate.
Pa Sloane sighed. His invention was giving out.
"Didn"t I hear you say day before yesterday that you were out of nutmegs?" he queried, after a few moments" severe reflection.
"I got a supply of them from the egg-pedlar yesterday," responded Ma, by a great effort preventing the twinkle from spreading over her entire face. She wondered if this third failure would squelch Pa. But Pa was not to be squelched.
"Well, anyway," he said, brightening up under the influence of a sudden saving inspiration. "I"ll have to go up to get the sorrel mare shod. So, if you"ve any little errands you want done at the store, Ma, just make a memo of them while I hitch up."
The matter of shoeing the sorrel mare was beyond Ma"s province, although she had her own suspicions about the sorrel mare"s need of shoes.
"Why can"t you give up beating about the bush, Pa?" she demanded, with contemptuous pity. "You might as well own up what"s taking you to Carmody. _I_ can see through your design. You want to get away to the Garland auction. That is what is troubling you, Pa Sloane."
"I dunno but what I might step over, seeing it"s so handy. But the sorrel mare really does need shoeing, Ma," protested Pa.
"There"s always something needing to be done if it"s convenient,"
retorted Ma. "Your mania for auctions will be the ruin of you yet, Pa.
A man of fifty-five ought to have grown out of such a hankering. But the older you get the worse you get. Anyway, if _I_ wanted to go to auctions, I"d select them as was something like, and not waste my time on little one-horse affairs like this of Garland"s."
"One might pick up something real cheap at Garland"s," said Pa defensively.
"Well, you are not going to pick up anything, cheap or otherwise, Pa Sloane, because I"m going with you to see that you don"t. I know I can"t stop you from going. I might as well try to stop the wind from blowing.
But I shall go, too, out of self-defence. This house is so full now of old clutter and truck that you"ve brought home from auctions that I feel as if I was made up out of pieces and left overs."
Pa Sloane sighed again. It was not exhilarating to attend an auction with Ma. She would never let him bid on anything. But he realized that Ma"s mind was made up beyond the power of mortal man"s persuasion to alter it, so he went out to hitch up.
Pa Sloane"s dissipation was going to auctions and buying things that n.o.body else would buy. Ma Sloane"s patient endeavours of over thirty years had been able to effect only a partial reform. Sometimes Pa heroically refrained from going to an auction for six months at a time; then he would break out worse than ever, go to all that took place for miles around, and come home with a wagonful of misfits. His last exploit had been to bid on an old dasher churn for five dollars--the boys "ran things up" on Pa Sloane for the fun of it--and bring it home to outraged Ma, who had made her b.u.t.ter for fifteen years in the very latest, most up-to-date barrel churn. To add insult to injury this was the second dasher churn Pa had bought at auction. That settled it. Ma decreed that henceforth she would chaperon Pa when he went to auctions.
But this was the day of Pa"s good angel. When he drove up to the door where Ma was waiting, a breathless, hatless imp of ten flew into the yard, and hurled himself between Ma and the wagon-step.
"Oh, Mrs. Sloane, won"t you come over to our house at once?" he gasped.
"The baby, he"s got colic, and ma"s just wild, and he"s all black in the face."
Ma went, feeling that the stars in their courses fought against a woman who was trying to do her duty by her husband. But first she admonished Pa.
"I shall have to let you go alone. But I charge you, Pa, not to bid on anything--on ANYTHING, do you hear?"
Pa heard and promised to heed, with every intention of keeping his promise. Then he drove away joyfully. On any other occasion Ma would have been a welcome companion. But she certainly spoiled the flavour of an auction.
When Pa arrived at the Carmody store, he saw that the little yard of the Garland place below the hill was already full of people. The auction had evidently begun; so, not to miss any more of it, Pa hurried down. The sorrel mare could wait for her shoes until afterwards.
Ma had been within bounds when she called the Garland auction a "one-horse affair." It certainly was very paltry, especially when compared to the big Donaldson auction of a month ago, which Pa still lived over in happy dreams.
Horace Garland and his wife had been poor. When they died within six weeks of each other, one of consumption and one of pneumonia, they left nothing but debts and a little furniture. The house had been a rented one.
The bidding on the various poor articles of household gear put up for sale was not brisk, but had an element of resigned determination.
Carmody people knew that these things had to be sold to pay the debts, and they could not be sold unless they were bought. Still, it was a very tame affair.
A woman came out of the house carrying a baby of about eighteen months in her arms, and sat down on the bench beneath the window.
"There"s Marthy Blair with the Garland Baby," said Robert Lawson to Pa.
"I"d like to know what"s to become of that poor young one!"
"Ain"t there any of the father"s or mother"s folks to take him?" asked Pa.
"No. Horace had no relatives that anybody ever heard of. Mrs. Horace had a brother; but he went to Manitoba years ago, and n.o.body knows where he is now. Somebody"ll have to take the baby and n.o.body seems anxious to.
I"ve got eight myself, or I"d think about it. He"s a fine little chap."
Pa, with Ma"s parting admonition ringing in his ears, did not bid on anything, although it will never be known how great was the heroic self-restraint he put on himself, until just at the last, when he did bid on a collection of flower-pots, thinking he might indulge himself to that small extent. But Josiah Sloane had been commissioned by his wife to bring those flower-pots home to her; so Pa lost them.
"There, that"s all," said the auctioneer, wiping his face, for the day was very warm for October.
"There"s nothing more unless we sell the baby."
A laugh went through the crowd. The sale had been a dull affair, and they were ready for some fun. Someone called out, "Put him up, Jacob."
The joke found favour and the call was repeated hilariously.
Jacob Blair took little Teddy Garland out of Martha"s arms and stood him up on the table by the door, steadying the small chap with one big brown hand. The baby had a mop of yellow curls, and a pink and white face, and big blue eyes. He laughed out at the men before him and waved his hands in delight. Pa Sloane thought he had never seen so pretty a baby.
"Here"s a baby for sale," shouted the auctioneer. "A genuine article, pretty near as good as brand-new. A real live baby, warranted to walk and talk a little. Who bids? A dollar? Did I hear anyone mean enough to bid a dollar? No, sir, babies don"t come as cheap as that, especially the curly-headed brand."