They turned into the parlor, where the lamp was burning, and Mrs.
Lathrop gave a little frightened scream:
"Susan! why, you look half--"
Miss Clegg collapsed at once heavily upon the haircloth-covered sofa.
"I guess you"d better make me some tea," she suggested, and shut her eyes.
Mrs. Lathrop had no doubt whatever on the subject. Hurrying out to the kitchen, she brewed a cup of the strongest possible tea in the fewest possible moments, and brought it in to the traveller. The latter drank with satisfaction, then leaned back with a sigh.
"It was a auction!" she said in tones that gasped.
Mrs. Lathrop could restrain her anxiety no longer.
"Did you get anything with my--" she asked.
"Yes; it"s out in the hall with my shawl."
"What did--"
"It"s a parrot," said Susan.
"A parrot!" cried Mrs. Lathrop, betraying as much feeling as it was in her to feel.
"Without any head," Susan added wearily.
"Without any head!"
Then Miss Clegg straightened up in her seat and opened her eyes.
"There ain"t no need o" bein" so surprised," she said in that peculiar tone with which one who has spent another"s money always defends his purchase,--"it"s a stuffed parrot without any head."
"A stuffed parrot without any head!" Mrs. Lathrop repeated limply, and her tone was numb and indescribable.
"How much did it--" she asked after a minute.
"I bid it in for one dollar "n" ninety-seven cents,--I was awful scared f"r fear it would go over your two dollars, an" it wasn"t nothin" that I"d ever want, so I couldn"t "a" taken it off your hands if it _had_ gone over your money."
"I wonder what I can do with it," her neighbor said feebly.
"You must hang it in the window so high "t the head don"t show."
"I thought you said it didn"t have no head."
Miss Clegg quitted the sofa abruptly and came over to her own chair; the tea appeared to be beginning to take effect.
"It _hasn"t_ got no head! If it had a head, where would be the sense in hangin" it high a _tall_? It"s your good luck, Mrs. Lathrop, "t it hasn"t got no head, for the man said "t if it had a head it would "a"
brought four or five dollars easy."
Mrs. Lathrop got up and went out into the hall to seek her parrot.
When she brought it in and examined it by the light of the lamp, her expression became more than dubious.
"What did _you_ get for your--" she asked at last.
"I didn"t get nothin". I didn"t see nothin" "t I wanted, "n" I learned long ago "t an auction "s generally a good place f"r buyin" things "t you don"t want after you"ve bought "em. Now take that parrot o"
yours!--I wouldn"t have him "f you was to offer him to me for a gift; not to speak o" his not havin" no head, he looks to me like he had moths in him,--you look at him by daylight to-morrow "n" see if it don"t strike you so too."
Mrs. Lathrop was silent for a long time. Finally she said:
"Did you go to the Orphan Asylum?"
"Well--no--I did n"t. I would "a" gone only I got on the wrong car "n"
ended in a cemetery instead. I had a nice time there, though, walkin"
roun" "n" readin" ages, an" jus" as I was goin" out I met a monument man "t had a place right outside the gate, "n" he took me to look at his things, "n" then I remembered father--two years dead "n" not a stone on him yet!"
Mrs. Lathrop laid the parrot aside with a heavy sigh and concentrated all her attention upon her friend"s recital.
"The man was about "s pleasant a man "s ever I met. When I told him about father, he told me he took a interest in every word, whether I bought a monument of him or not. He said he"d show me all he had "n"
welcome "n" it was no trouble but a joy. Then he took me all through his shop "n" the shed behind, "n" really I never had a nicer time. I see a lamb lyin" down first, "n" I thought "t that would be nice f"r a little, but the further back we went the finer they got. The man wanted me to take a eagle grippin" a pen "n" writin" father"s name on a book "t he"s sittin" on to hold open while he writes. I told him "f I bought any such monument I cert"nly would want the name somewhere else than up where no one but the eagle could read it. He said "t I could have the name below "n" let the eagle be writin" "Repose in Peace," but I told him "t father died of paralysis after bein" in bed for twenty years "n" that his idea o" Heaven wasn"t reposin" in peace,--he always looked forward to walkin" about "n." bein" pretty lively there. Then the man said "t maybe suthin" simple would be more to my taste, "n" he took me to where there was a pillow with a wreath of roses on it, but--my gracious, I"d never be so mean "s to put a pillow anywhere near father after all them years in bed, "n" as to the roses they"d be jus" "s bad or worse, for you know yourself how they give him hay-fever so "s we had to dig up all the bushes years ago.
"But I"ll tell you, Mrs. Lathrop, what I _did_ see that n.o.body on the wide earth c"d help wishin" was on top o" their grave the minute they laid eyes on it. It"s a lion--a weepin" lion--kind o" tryin" to wipe his eyes with one paw. I tell you I never saw nothin" one quarter so handsome over no one yet, "n" if I wasn"t thinkin" o" adoptin" a child I"d never rest until I"d set that lion on top of father. But o"
course, as it is, I can"t even think how it might look there; the livin" has rights over the dead, "n" my child can"t go without the necessaries of life while my father gets a weepin" lion "t when you come right square down to it he ain"t got no more use for "n" a cat has for two tails. No, I"m a rich woman, but all incomes has their outside fence. "F a man "s got a million a year, he can"t spend two million, "n" I can"t start in child raisin" "n" tombstone father all in the same year. Father "ll have to wait, "n" he got so used to it while he was alive "t he ought not to mind it much now he"s dead. But I give the man my address, "n" he give me one o" his cards, "n" when I go to the Orphan Asylum I may go back "n" see him, an" maybe if I tell him about the baby he"ll reduce the lion some. The lion is awful high--strikes me. He"s three hunderd dollars, but the man says that "s because his tail "s out o" the same block. I asked him if he couldn"t take the tail off, but he said "t that would hurt his reputation. He said "f I"d go up the ladder to his second floor "n" look down on the lion I"d never talk about sawin" off his tail, "n" he said "t anyhow cuttin" it off would only make it cost more because it was cut on in the first place. I saw the sense o" that, "n" I remembered, too, "t even "f folks in the cemetery never can see the tail, father "ll have to look at it from higher up "n the ladder to the monument man"s shed, "n" I don"t want him to think "t I economized on the tail of his tombstone. I tell you what, Mrs. Lathrop, I cert"nly do want that lion, but I can"t have it, so I"ve decided not to think of it again.
The man c"d see I wanted it, "n" I c"d see "t he really wanted me to have it. He felt so kind o" sorry for me "t he said he"d do me a weepin" fox for one hunderd "n" fifty, if I wanted it, but I didn"t want no fox. Father didn"t have nothin" like a fox--his nose was broad "n" kind o" flat. He hadn"t nothin" like a lion, neither, but I"d like to have the only lion in the cemetery ours."
Mrs. Lathrop nodded her head sympathetically.
Miss Clegg sighed and looked pensive for a moment, but it was soon over.
""N" I"ve decided about my child too," she continued briskly,--"I"ve decided to have a boy. I decided goin" in on the train to-day. I"d been sorter thinkin" that I"d leave it to chance, but ordinary folks can"t do no more "n" that, "n" where "s the good o" me bein" so open "n" above-board "f I dunno whether it"ll be a boy or girl, after all?
I might "s well "s married the minister, "n" Lord knows Mrs. Sh.o.r.es"s troubles ought to be warnin" enough to no woman in this community not to marry no man, f"r one while, at any rate. If Mrs. Sh.o.r.es hadn"t married Mr. Sh.o.r.es, she c"d easy "a" married his clerk when she fell in love with him. No woman that "s goin" to fall in love ever ought to begin by marryin" another man first. It mixes everythin" all up. But Mrs. Sh.o.r.es was a fool or she never would "a" married him to begin with. I told him that the first time "t I see him after she was gone.
I thought "t if it was any comfort to him to know that there was one person in the c"mmunity "t looked on his wife as a fool he was welcome to the knowin". So I told him, "n" I used those very self-same words too,--"n" I cert"nly did ache to tell him that he was jus" "s big a fool himself to "a" ever married her, but I didn"t think "t that would be jus" polite.
"But all that was right in the first of it--before she took the baby.
I"m free to confess "t I think he c"d "a" stood anythin" "f she hadn"t took the baby. It was the baby as used him all up. "N" that seems kind o" queer too, for seems to me, "f my wife run away, I"d be glad to make a clean sweep o" her "n" hers "n" begin all afresh; I"d never have no injunctions "n" detectives drawin" wages for chasin" no wife "n" baby "t left o" their own accord. But that"s jus" like a man, "n"
I must say "t I"m dead glad "t no man ain"t goin" to have no right to interfere with my child. I c"n take it "n" go anywhere "t I please "n"
never be afraid o" any subpenny comin" down on me. "S far "s I"m concerned, I only wish "t she"d send back "n" abduct him too, "n" then the community "d have some peace on the Sh.o.r.es subjeck. There ain"t nothin" left to say, "n" every one keeps sayin" it over "n" over from dawn to dark. I must say, Mrs. Lathrop, "t when I c"nsider how much folks still find to say o" Mrs. Sh.o.r.es "n" it all, I"m more "n proud that I ain"t never been one to say nothin" a _tall_."
Mrs. Lathrop did not speak for some time. Then she took up her parrot again and looked thoughtfully at its feet.
"What made you decide on a b--" she asked at last.
"I didn"t decide. I c"u"d n"t decide, "n" so I shook a nickel for heads "n" tails."
""N" it came a boy."
"No, it came a girl, "n" the minute "t I see "t it was a girl I knew "t I"d wanted a boy all along, so, "s the good o" me bein" free to act "s I please is "t I do act "s I please, I decided then "n" there on a boy."
Mrs. Lathrop turned the parrot over.