She bent over the bed where the new wardrobe was displayed, pretending to examine the dainty apparel, but in reality to hide the tears which would persist in gathering in her eyes at thought of separation from this playmate who had helped make life so happy for her since she had come to Silver Bow.
"Tabitha!"
How welcome that voice from across the road sounded just then when she wanted to get away and be alone for a time with her thoughts, and with a hasty hug of the rosy-cheeked girl still on the floor by the bed, she rushed out of the house to answer her aunt"s call.
In the cool of the evening Tom found her sitting among the rocks high up on the mountainside, gazing with somber eyes into the golden west, for the ocean lay in that direction, and it was close to the seash.o.r.e that Carrie was going away to school.
"What"s the matter, Puss?" he asked gently, reading tragedy in her mournful att.i.tude, and secretly wondering who would champion the little sister"s cause when he had gone away to college.
"Nothing much, Tom," she answered, and then amended her statement; "that is, nothing that can be helped."
He sat down on the rock beside her and waited for her confession, but she was silent, and for a long time they sat staring off across the flat to the mountains beyond, where the afterglow of the brilliant sunset still hung and radiated from each peak. Then he spoke, "Puss, in two weeks I leave for the University. Did you know it?"
She nodded her head.
"Mr. Carson has just come home from Reno and he brought me all sorts of booklets and views of the place and particularly of the college buildings. Do you want to see them?"
"Yes!" She was all eagerness, for Tom"s joys were hers, and his achievements the pride of her heart. So he laid a bundle of papers and pictures in her lap and drew nearer that he might make explanations and answer the questions she was sure to ask.
"There is a High School there, too, Puss, and if I have success in earning more than enough money to put me through college, I will send for you and you will keep house for me and go to High School there. Then when you graduate from that department, you will be ready to go to college, and I will be earning a salary, or maybe have an office all my own, so I can help you through the University."
"That would be nice, Tom, ever so nice, but I am afraid you will never earn the money. It will take a heap. Carrie is going away to boarding school now, and I want to go with her, but Dad won"t let me."
"So you know?" The relief in Tom"s voice made Tabitha look up.
"Know what?"
"Have you seen Dad yet?"
"No, but then I know he never would let me go and there is no use in asking."
"Oh!"
"Tom, has he said anything to you about it?" asked Tabitha, for she could read this brother"s face like a book, and understood now that there was more behind his words than he had told her.
"No, Puss, not a word," he declared.
But she wasn"t deceived, and after a moment of silence said, "Then Mr.
Carson has."
"No, Mr. Carson hasn"t mentioned it--to me."
The pause was hardly perceptible, but Tabitha"s quick ears discerned it, and she triumphantly confronted Tom with the declaration, "You heard him ask Dad!"
"What a mind-reader you are!" he laughed.
"Now, didn"t you?"
"Yes."
"And Dad said I couldn"t go?"
"Yes."
"I told Carrie that was what would happen." Her voice was very quiet, her face very calm, and the fierce outbreak he had expected did not come. He was amazed but he understood the struggle going on within that tempestuous heart, and was touched by her silent despair.
"Puss," he ventured after another long pause, "would you rather have me stay here with you instead of going to Reno?"
He held his breath for her answer and his heart beat wildly. How could he renounce his ambitions or even postpone their fulfilment when they meant so much to him? But his mother had left the little sister in his care, and he was all she had to love and help her over the rough path her feet had been treading all her short life. What would she do without him, particularly if Carrie was to go away, too? Miss Brooks had already gone and the Vanes might at any time return to their city home from their long sojourn in this little desert town. Tabitha would be bereft indeed if he went to college. These thoughts flashed through his mind as he asked that vital question and waited for her reply.
"Why, Tom!" she cried in utter surprise, "do you suppose I"d want you to stay here with me when you"ve got the chance to get a "higher education"?" (Those words seemed to fascinate her.) "That"s better than if I could go. You"re a boy--a man, I mean--and you _have_ to know lots to be a mining engineer like the surveyor. I"m just a little girl, and it doesn"t matter whether I know anything or not. You must go to the University while you have the chance, Tom. I wish I could help you earn the money so you would be sure of the whole course--"
"You precious little Puss!" he cried with a voice that would tremble in spite of his efforts to hold it steady, and slipping his arm around her he gave her a big, boyish hug. "Some day everything will come out all right and I am sure it won"t be too late for boarding school and college either."
Unaccustomed to such demonstration even from the gentle-hearted boy who loved her so dearly, Tabitha sat looking shyly up at the tender brown eyes above her, thinking how nice it felt to have his protecting arm holding her close, when without warning, he stooped and kissed her full on the lips.
"Oh, Tom, you are the dearest brother! I am so glad you are going to college. Then you will grow up to be like Mr. Carson instead of like a--Catt."
"Dad went to college."
Tabitha was startled. "Why, Tom!"
"Yes, he did; but he was expelled for something another boy did, and then after he started to earn his own living, his partner cheated him out of his share in a valuable mine and--that"s what makes him what he is now."
"How do you know this?"
"Oh, I"ve remembered things I heard him or Aunt Maria say, and then today he told Mr. Carson some of the events of his life. He _has_ been rather unfortunate right straight along. Only last New Year"s someone "jumped" one of his claims that he had somehow neglected to prove up on."
"I don"t see why that should make him so--so--I"m glad you are different, Tom. Do you suppose he will keep on until he is like the hermit of the hills?"
"Who is the hermit of the hills? I never heard of him before."
"Why, yes, you have! He lives in that little shack over there;" pointing to a rough, dilapidated hut far down on the mountain side, built of odds and ends of lumber and pieced out with empty oil cans, rusted red with the rains of many winters. Made without windows or openings of any sort, except a narrow door on one side, it must have presented a very dreary, uninviting appearance to its one occupant, who was the only person who had ever seen its interior, for owing to his peculiar habits, people regarded him as crazy and left him severely alone. He had never been known to molest anyone, but sought rather to avoid meeting human beings, so he was suffered to remain there in his lonely hut on the mountain with no one but a stray cur for company.
"Oh, Surly Sim! I never heard him called such a fancy name before, Puss.
How did you suppose I would recognize him?"
""The hermit of the hills" is a much grander sounding name than "Surly Sim," and he does look so lonely off there by himself. I should hate to think of Dad shutting himself up like that and having folks say he was crazy. He is kind to animals."
"How do you know, Puss?" asked the boy, quickly, surveying his sister with apprehensive eyes. "You don"t go over there, do you?"
"No, indeed. I"m scared of him. Besides, he runs if he sees anyone coming. Carrie and I were picking flowers the first time I ever knew he lived there, or that there was even a house over there. He saw us just as he climbed out of a hole--a prospect hole, I suppose--and he ran as tight as he could for the house and shut the door. We were scared and we ran the other way and never stopped until we got home. Mr. Carson told us about him then and said he had never hurt anyone, but he would rather we didn"t go over there, for he thought the man was really crazy.
Since then I have often sat up here and watched him when it wasn"t too hot. He just thinks lots of the little dog he has, and it is awfully homely; hasn"t any tail or ears and is the worst-looking color I ever saw."
Tom laughed at her earnestness. "Poor dog!"
"Well, you needn"t laugh; it _is_ homely, and so is the cat. He has my cat. I couldn"t bear to keep it, Tom. Please don"t look at me like that.
I was awfully hateful to it, I know, but Dad would call it "p.u.s.s.y" and I couldn"t bear the sight of it. When I made sure the man was kind to the dog, I chased the cat down there. I was afraid it would come back, like it always did when I shoved it into the prospect holes; but it must have liked him right away, for it stayed. Now he has an earless cat to go with the dog. That was long ago, Tom, before the Vanes ever came here to live. I wouldn"t be so mean again, but I did hate that cat terribly then. I"ve never tried to coax it back because it was happier there, but I am truly sorry that I was ugly to it. I don"t want people to hate me because I have such a horrid temper and name. I can"t change the name, but I can hold on to my temper sometimes, though it is hard work and I don"t get along very well."