Mrs. Armstrong scarcely knew whether to be amused or indignant.
"Of course I shouldn"t sell it," she declared. "It wouldn"t be mine to sell."
Jed looked frightened. "Yes, "twould; yes, "twould," he persisted.
"That"s why I"m lettin" it to you. Then I can"t sell it to her; I CAN"T, don"t you see?"
Captain Sam grinned. "Fur"s that goes," he suggested, "I don"t see"s you"ve got to worry, Jed. You don"t need to sell it, to her or anybody else, unless you want to."
But Jed looked dubious. "I suppose Jonah cal"lated he didn"t need to be swallowed," he mused. "You take it, ma"am, for a month, as a favor to me."
"But how can I--like this? We haven"t even settled the question of rent. And you know nothing whatever about me."
He seemed to reflect. Then he asked:
"Your daughter don"t sing like a windmill, does she?"
Barbara"s eyes and mouth opened. "Why, Mamma!" she exclaimed, indignantly.
"Hush, Babbie. Sing like a--what? I don"t understand, Mr.
Winslow."
The captain burst out laughing. "No wonder you don"t, ma"am," he said. "It takes the seven wise men of Greece to understand him most of the time. You leave it to me, Mrs. Armstrong. He and I will talk it over together and then you and he can talk to-morrow.
But I guess likely you"ll have the house, if you want it; Jed doesn"t go back on his word. I always say that for you, don"t I, old sawdust?" turning to the gentleman thus nicknamed.
Jed, humming a mournful hymn, was apparently miles away in dreamland. Yet he returned to earth long enough to indulge in a mild bit of repartee. "You say "most everything for me, Sam," he drawled, "except when I talk in my sleep."
Mrs. Armstrong and Barbara left a moment later, the lady saying that she and Mr. Winslow would have another interview next day.
Barbara gravely shook hands with both men.
"I and Petunia hope awfully that we are going to live here, Mr.
Winslow," she said, ""specially Petunia."
Jed regarded her gravely. "Oh, she wants to more"n you do, then, does she?" he asked.
The child looked doubtful. "No-o," she admitted, after a moment"s reflection, "but she can"t talk, you know, and so she has to hope twice as hard else I wouldn"t know it. Good-by. Oh, I forgot; Captain Hedge liked his swordfish EVER so much. He said it was a-- a--oh, yes, humdinger."
She trotted off after her mother. Captain Hunniwell, after a chuckle of appreciation over the "humdinger," began to tell his friend what little he had learned concerning the Armstrongs. This was, of course, merely what Mrs. Armstrong herself had told him and amounted to this: She was a widow whose husband had been a physician in Middleford, Connecticut. His name was Seymour Armstrong and he had now been dead four years. Mrs. Armstrong and Barbara, the latter an only child, had continued to occupy the house at Middleford, but recently the lady had come to feel that she could not afford to live there longer, but must find some less expensive quarters.
"She didn"t say so," volunteered Captain Sam, "but I judge she lost a good deal of her money, bad investments or somethin" like that.
If there"s any bad investment anywheres in the neighborhood you can "most generally trust a widow to hunt it up and put her insurance money into it. Anyhow, "twas somethin" like that, for after livin"
there a spell, just as she did when her husband was alive, she all at once decides to up anchor and find some cheaper moorin"s. First off, though, she decided to spend the summer in a cool place and some friend, somebody with good, sound judgment, suggests Orham.
So she lets her own place in Middleford, comes to Orham, falls in love with the place--same as any sensible person would naturally, of course--and, havin" spent "most three months here, decides she wants to spend nine more anyhow. She comes to the bank to cash a check, she and I get talkin", she tells me what she"s lookin" for, I tell her I cal"late I"ve got a place in my eye that I think might be just the thing, and--"
He paused to bite the end from a cigar. His friend finished the sentence for him.
"And then," he said, "you, knowin" that I didn"t want to let this house any time to anybody, naturally sent her down to look at it."
"No such thing. Course I knew that you"d OUGHT to let the house and, likin" the looks and ways of these Armstrong folks first rate, I give in that I had made up my mind TO send her down to look at it. But, afore I could do it, the Almighty sent her on His own hook. Which proves," he added, with a grin, "that my judgment has pretty good backin" sometimes."
Jed rubbed his chin. "Careful, Sam," he drawled, "careful. The Kaiser"ll be gettin" jealous of you if you don"t look out. But what," he inquired, "made her and the little girl move out of Middleford, or wherever "twas they lived? They could have found cheaper quarters there, couldn"t they? Course I ain"t never been there, but seems as if they could."
"Sartin they could, but the fact of their movin" is what makes me pretty sure the widow"s investments had turned sour. It"s a plaguey sight easier to begin to cut down and live economical in a place where n.o.body knows you than "tis in one where everybody has known you for years. See that, don"t you?"
Jed whistled sadly, breaking off in the middle of a bar to reply that he didn"t know as he did.
"I"ve never cut up, so cuttin" down don"t worry me much," he observed. "But I presume likely you"re right, Sam; you generally are." He whistled a moment longer, his gaze apparently fixed upon a point in the middle of the white plastered ceiling. Then he said, dreamily: "Well, anyhow, "twon"t be but a month. They"ll go somewheres else in a month."
Captain Sam sniffed. "Bet you a dollar they won"t," he retorted.
"Not unless you turn "em out. And I see you turnin" anybody out."
But Mr. Winslow looked hopeful. "They"ll go when the month"s up,"
he reiterated. "n.o.body could stand me more than a month. Mother used to say so, and she"d known me longer than anybody."
And so, in this curious fashion, did tenants come to the old Winslow house. They moved in on the following Monday. Jed saw the wagon with the trunks backing up to the door and he sighed. Then he went over to help carry the trunks into the house.
For the first week he found the situation rather uncomfortable; not as uncomfortable as he had feared, but a trifle embarra.s.sing, nevertheless. His new neighbors were not too neighborly; they did not do what he would have termed "pester" him by running in and out of the shop at all hours, nor did they continually ask favors. On the other hand they did not, like his former tenants, the Davidsons, treat him as if he were some sort of odd wooden image, like one of his own weather vanes, a creature without feelings, to be displayed and "shown off" when it pleased them and ignored when it did not. Mrs. Armstrong was always quietly cheerful and friendly when they met in the yard or about the premises, but she neither intruded nor patronized. Jed"s first impression of her, a favorable one, was strengthened daily.
"I like her first-rate," he told Captain Sam. "She ain"t too folksy and she ain"t too standoffish. Why, honest truth, Sam," he added, ingenuously, "she treats me just the same as if I was like the common run of folks."
The captain snorted. "Gracious king! Do stop runnin" yourself down," he commanded. "Suppose you are a little mite--er--different from the--well, from the heft of mackerel in the keg, what of it?
That"s your own private business, ain"t it?"
Jed"s lip twitched. "I suppose "tis," he drawled. "If it wan"t there wouldn"t be so many folks interested in it."
At first he missed the freedom to which he had accustomed himself during his years of solitude, the liberty of preparing for bed with the doors and windows toward the sea wide open and the shades not drawn; of strolling out to the well at unearthly hours of the early morning singing at the top of his lungs; of washing face and hands in a tin basin on a bench by that well curb instead of within doors. There were some necessary concessions to convention to which his attention was called by Captain Hunniwell, who took it upon himself to act as a sort of social mentor.
"Do you always wash outdoors there?" asked the captain, after watching one set of ablutions.
"Why--er--yes, I "most generally do in good weather. It"s sort of-- er--well, sort of cool and roomy, as you might say."
"Roomy, eh? Gracious king! Well, I should say you needed room.
You splash into that basin like a kedge anchor goin" overboard and when you come out of it you puff like a grampus comin" up to blow.
How do you cal"late Mrs. Armstrong enjoys seein" you do that?"
Jed looked startled and much disturbed. "Eh?" he exclaimed. "Why, I never thought about her, Sam. I declare I never did. I--I"ll fetch the wash basin inside this very minute."
And he did. The inconvenience attached to the breaking off of a summer-time habit of years troubled him not half as much as the fear that he might have offended a fellow creature"s sensibilities.
Jed Winslow was far too sensitive himself and his own feelings had been hurt too many times to make hurting those of another a small offense in his eyes.
But these were minor inconveniences attached to his new position as landlord. There were recompenses. At work in his shop he could see through the window the white-clad, graceful figure of Mrs.
Armstrong moving about the yard, sitting with Barbara on the bench by the edge of the bluff, or writing a letter at a table she had taken out under the shadow of the silver-leaf tree. Gradually Jed came to enjoy seeing her there, to see the windows of the old house open, to hear voices once more on that side of the shop, and to catch glimpses of Babbie dancing in and out over the shining mica slab at the door.
He liked the child when he first met her, but he had been a little fearful that, as a neighbor, she might trouble him by running in and out of the shop, interfering with his privacy and his work or making a small nuisance of herself when he was waiting on customers. But she did none of these things, in fact she did not come into the shop at all and, after the first week had pa.s.sed, he began to wonder why. Late that afternoon, seeing her sitting on the bench by the bluff edge, her doll in her arms, he came out of the door of his little kitchen at the back of the shop and called her.
"Good evenin"," he hailed. "Takin" in the view, was you?"
She bobbed her head. "Yes, sir," she called in reply; "Petunia and I were looking at it."