Ha, ha! Soife you right! He run away!" The old man laughed unamiably.
"Ha, ha! Dago mens foolt dod smard Bertha. Dod"s pooty tough. But, bei Gott, you stop dod noise und ect lige a detzent voomans, or you goin" haf droubles mit your uncle Louie Gratz!"
But Bertha, an undistinguishable heap on the floor of the unlit room, only gasped brokenly for breath and wept on.
"Ach, ach, ach, lieber Gott in Himmel!" sobbed Bertha. "Why didn"t Toby come for me? Ach, ach! What iss happened mit Toby? Somedings iss happened--I _know_ ut!"
"Ya, ya!" jibed Gratz; "somedings iss heppened, I bet you! Brop"ly he"s got anoder vife, dod"s vot heppened! Brop"ly _leffing_ ad you mit anoder voomans! Vot for dit he nefer tolt you vere he lif? So you voultn"t ketch him; dod"s der reason! You"re a pooty vun, _you_ are! Runnin" efter a doity Dago mens! Bei Gott! you bedder git oop und back your glo"es, und stob dod gryin". I"m goin" to mofe owid to-morrow; und you kin go verefer you blease. I ain"d goin" to sday anoder day in sitch a neighbourhoot. Fife more smallpox lanterns yoost oop der streed. I"m goin" mofe glean to der oder ent of der city. Und you can come by me or you can run efter your Dago mens und his voomans! Dod"s why he dittn"t come to marry you, you grazy--ut"s a voomans!"
"No, _no_," screamed Bertha, stopping her ears with her forefingers. "Lies, lies, lies!"
A slatternly negro woman dawdled down the street the following afternoon, and, encountering a friend of like description near the cottage which had been tenanted by Louie Gratz and his niece, paused for conversation.
"Howdy, honey," she began, leaning restfully against the gate-post. "How"s you ma?"
"She right spry," returned the friend. "How you"self an" you good husban", Miz Mo"ton?"
Mrs. Morton laughed cheerily. "Oh, he enjoyin" de "leckshum. He "uz on de picnic yas"day, to Smeltuh"s ice-houses; an" "count er Mist"
Maxim"s gittin" "lected, dey gi"n him bottle er whiskey an" two dollahs. He up at de house now, entuhtainin" some ge"lemenfrien"s wi"de bones, honey."
"Um hum." The other lady sighed reflectively. "I on"y wisht my po"
husban" could er live to enjoy de fruits er politics."
"Yas"m," returned Mrs. Morton. "You right. It are a great intrus" in a man"s life. Dat what de ornator say in de speech f"m de back er de groce"y wagon, yas"m, a great intrus" in a man"s life. Decla"h, I b"lieve Goe"ge think mo" er politics dan he do er me! Well ma"am," she concluded, glancing idly up and down the street and leaning back more comfortably against the gatepost, "I mus" be goin" on my urrant."
"What urrant"s dat?" inquired the widow.
"Mighty quare urrant," replied Mrs. Morton. "Mighty quare urrant, honey. You see back yon"eh dat new smallpox flag?"
"Sho."
"Well ma"am, night fo" las", dat Joe Cribbins, dat one-eye n.i.g.g.e.r what sell de policy tickets, an"s done be"n havin" de smallpox, he crope out de back way, when"s de gyahd weren"t lookin", an", my Lawd, ef dey ain"t ketch him down in dat Dago cellar, tryin" sell dem Dagoes policy tickets! Yahah, honey!" Mrs. Morton threw back her head to laugh. "Ain"t dat de beatenest n.i.g.g.e.r, dat one-eyed Joe?"
"What den, Miz Mo"ton?" pursued the listener.
"Den dey quahumteem dem Dagoes; sot a gyahd dah: you kin see him settin" out dah now. Well ma"am, "cordin" to dat gyahd, one er dem Dagoes like ter go inter fits all day yas"day. Dat man hatter go in an" quiet him down ev"y few minute". Seem "t he boun" sen" a message an" cain"t git no one to ca"y it fer him. De gyahd, he cain"t go; he willin" sen" de message, but cain"t git n.o.body come nigh enough de place fer to tell "em what it is. "Sides, it "leckshum-day, an" mos"
folks hangin" "roun" de polls. Well ma"am, dis aft"noon, I so"nter"n by, an" de gyahd holler out an" ask me do I want make a dollah, an" I say I do. I ain"t "fraid no smallpox, done had it two year" ago. So I say I take de message."
"What is it?"
"Law, honey, it ain"t wrote. Dem Dago folks hain"t got no writin" ner readin". Dey mo" er less like de beasts er de fiel". Dat message by word er mouf. I goin" tell nuffin "bout de quahumteem. I"m gotter say: "Toby sen" word to liebuh Augustine dat she needn" worry. He li"l sick, not much, but de doctah ain" "low him out fer two weeks; an"
"mejutly at de en" er dat time he come an" git her an" den kin go on home wheres de canary bu"d is." Honey, you evah hyuh o" sich a foolishness? But de gyahd, he say de message gotter be ca"yied da.s.s dataways."
"Lan" name!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the widow. "Who dat message to?"
"Hit to a Dutch gal."
"My Lawd!" The widow lifted amazed hands to heaven. "De impidence er dem Dagoes! _Little_ mo" an" dey"ll be sen"in" messages to you er me!--What her name?"
"Name Bertha Gra.s.s," responded Mrs. Morton, "an", nigh as I kin make out, she live in one er dese little w"ite-paint cottages, right "long yere."
"Yas"m! I knows dat Dutch gal, ole man Gra.s.s, de tailor, da.s.s his niece. W"y, dey done move out dis mawn, right f"um dis ve"y house you stan"in in front de gate of. De ole man skeered er de smallpox, an" he mad, too, an" de neighbuhs ask him whuh he gwine, he won"t tell; so mad he won"t speak to n.o.body. None on "em "round hyuh knows an" dey"s considabul cyu"us "bout it, too. Dey gone off in bofe d"rections--him one way, her "nother. "Peah lak dey be"n quollun!"
"Now look at dat!" cried Mrs. Morton dolefully. "Look at dat! Ain"t dat de doggonest luck in de wide worl"! De gyahd he say dat Dago willin" pay fifty cents a day fo" me to teck an" bring a message eve"y mawn" tell de quahumteem took off de cellar. Now dat Dutch gal gone an" loss dat money fo" me--movin" "way whuh n.o.body cain"t fine "er!"
"Sho!" laughed the widow. "Ef I"se in you place, Miz Mo"ton, an" you"s in mine, dat money sho"lly, sho"lly nevah would be los", indeed hit wouldn"t. I da.s.s go in t" de do" an" tu"n right "roun" back ag"in an"
go down to dat gyahd an" say de Dutch gal "ceive de message wid de bes" er "bligin" politeness an" sent her kine regyahds to de Dago man an" all inquirin" frien"s, an" hope de Dago man soon come an" git "er. To-morrer de same, nex" day de same--"
"Lawd, ef dat ain"t de beatenest!" cried Mrs. Morton delightedly. "Well, honey, I thank you long as I live, "cause I nevah"d a wuk dat out by myself an de livin" worl", an" I sho does needs de money. I"m goin" do exackly da.s.s de way you say. Dat man he ain" goin" know no diffunce till he git out--an" den, honey," she let loose upon the quiet air a sudden, great salvo of laughter, "da.s.s let him fine Lize Mo"ton!"
Bertha went to live in the tiny room with the canary bird and the engraving of the "Rock of Ages." This was putting lime to the canker, but, somehow, she felt that she could go to no other place. She told the landlady that her young man had not done so well in business as they had expected, and had sought work in another city. He would come back, she said.
She woke from troubled dreams each morning to stifle her sobbing in the pillow. "Ach, Toby, coultn"t you sented me yoost one word, you _might_ sented me yoost one word, yoost one, to tell me what has happened mit you! Ach, Toby, Toby!"
The canary sang happily; she loved it and tended it, and the gay little prisoner tried to reward her by the most marvellous trilling in his power, but her heart was the sorer for every song.
After a time she went back drearily to the kraut-smelling restaurant, to the work she had thought to leave forever, that day when Toby had not come for her. She went out twenty times every morning, and oftener as it wore on towards evening, to look at his closed stand, always with a choking hope in her heart, always to drag leaden feet back into the restaurant. Several times, her breath failing for shame, she approached Italians in the street, or where there was one to be found at a stand of any sort she stopped and made a purchase, and asked for some word of Toby--without result, always. She knew no other way to seek for him.
One day, as she trudged homeward, two coloured women met on the pavement in front of her, exchanged greetings, and continued for a little way together.
"How you enjoyin" you" money, dese fine days, Miz Mo"ton?" inquired one, with a laugh that attested to the richness of the joke between the two.
"Law, honey," answered the other, "dat good luck di"n" las" ve"y long. Dey done shut off my supplies."
"No!"
"Yas"m, dey sho did. Dat man done tuck de smallpox; all on "em ketched it, ev"y las" one, off"n dat no "count Joe Cribbins, an" now dat dey got de new pes"-house finish", dey haul "em off yon"eh, yas"day.
Reckon dat ain" make no diffunce in my urrant runnin". Dat Dago man, he outer he hade two day fo" dey haul "em away, an" ain" sen" no mo"
messages. So dat spile _my_ job! Hit da.s.s my luck. Dey"s sho" a voodoo on Lize Mo"ton!"
Bertha, catching but fragments of this conversation, had no realization that it bore in any way upon the mystery of Toby; and she stumbled homeward through the twilight with her tired eyes on the ground.
When she opened the door of the tiny room, the landlady"s lean black cat ran out surrept.i.tiously. The bird-cage lay on the floor, upside down, and of its jovial little inhabitant the tokens were a few yellow feathers.
Bertha did not know until a month after, when Leo Vesschi found her at the restaurant and told her, that out in the new pest-house, that other songster and prisoner, the gay little chestnut vender, Pietro Tobigli, had called lamentably upon the name of his G.o.d and upon "Libra Ogostine," and now lay still forever, with the corduroy waistcoat and its precious burden tightly clenched to his breast. Even in his delirium they had been unable to coax or force him to part from it for a second.
THE NEED OF MONEY
Far back in his corner on the Democratic side of the House, Uncle Billy Rollinson sat through the dragging routine of the legislative session, wondering what most of it meant. When anybody spoke to him, in pa.s.sing, he would answer, in his gentle, timid voice, "Howdy-do, sir." Then his cheeks would grow a little red and he would stroke his long, white beard elaborately, to cover his embarra.s.sment. When a vote was taken, his name was called toward the last of the roll, so that he had ample time, after the leader of his side of the House, young Hurlbut, had voted, to clear his throat several times and say "Aye" or "No" in quite a firm voice. But the instant the word had left his lips he found himself terribly frightened, and stroked his beard a great many times, the while he stared seriously up at the ceiling, partly to avoid meeting anybody"s eye, and partly in the belief that it concealed his agitation and gave him the air of knowing what he was about. Usually he did not know, any more than he knew how he had happened to be sent to the legislature by his county. But he liked it. He liked the feeling of being a person to be considered; he liked to think that he was making the laws of his State. He liked the handsome desk and the easy leather chair; he liked the row of fat, expensive volumes, the unlimited stationery, and the free penknives which were furnished him. He enjoyed the attentions of the coloured men in the cloakroom, who brushed him ostentatiously and always called him (and the other Representatives) "Senator," to make up to themselves for the airs which the janitors of the "Upper House"
a.s.sumed. Most of these things surprised him; he had not expected to be treated with such liberality by the State and never realized that he and his colleagues were treating themselves to all these things at the expense of the people, and so, although he bore off as much note-paper as he could carry, now and then, to send to his son, Henry, he was horrified and dumbfounded when the bill was proposed appropriating $135,000 for the expenses of the seventy days" session of the legislature.
He was surprised to find that among his "perquisites" were pa.s.ses (good during the session) on all the railroads that entered the State, and others for use on many inter-urban trolley lines. These, he thought, might be gratifying to Henry, who was fond of travel, and had often been unhappy when his father failed to sc.r.a.pe up enough money to send him to a circus in the next county. It was "very accommodating of the railroads," Uncle Billy thought, to maintain this pleasant custom, because the members" travelling expenses were paid by the State just the same; hence the economical could "draw their mileage"
at the Treasurer"s office, and add it to their salaries. He heard--only vaguely understanding--many joking references to other ways of adding to salaries.
Most of the members of his party had taken rooms at one of the hotels, whither those who had sought cheaper apartments repaired in the evening, when the place became a noisy and crowded club, admission to which was not by card. Most of the rougher man-to-man lobbying was done here; and at times it was Babel.