"What"s that? Now, don"t talk like that to me, you little whipper-snapper, er you go to bed in a hurry. I never cried in my life,"
growled Anderson in a great bl.u.s.ter.
"Well, then, let"s talk about something else--me, for instance. Do you know, Daddy Crow, that I"m too strong to live an idle life. There is no reason why I shouldn"t have an occupation. I want to work--accomplish something."
Anderson was silent a long time collecting his nerves. "You wouldn"t keer to be a female detective, would you?" he asked drily.
CHAPTER X
Rosalie Has Plans of Her Own
"Do be serious, daddy. I want to do something worth while. I could teach school or--"
"Not much! You ain"t cut out fer that job. Don"t you know that ever"body hates school-teachers when they"re growed up? Jerusalem, how I still hate old Rachel Kidwell! An" yet she"s bin dead nigh onto thirty years.
She was my first teacher. You wasn"t born to be hated by all the boys in the district. I don"t see what put the idee of work inter your head You got "bout eight thousand dollars in the bank an"--"
"But I insist that the money is yours, daddy. My fairy G.o.dmother paid it to you for keeping, clothing, and educating me. It is not mine."
"You talk like I was a boardin" school instead o" bein" your guardeen.
No, siree; it"s your money, an" that ends it. You git it when you"re twenty-one."
"We"ll see, daddy," she replied, a stubborn light in her dark eyes. "But I want to learn to do something worth while. If I had a million it would be just the same."
"You"ll have something to do when you git married," observed he sharply.
"Nonsense!"
"I s"pose you"re goin" to say you never expect to git married. They all say it--an" then take the first feller "at comes along."
"I didn"t take the first, or the second, or the third, or the--"
"Hold on! Gosh a"mighty, have you had that many? Well, why don"t you go into the matrimonial agent"s business? That"s an occupation."
"Oh, none of them was serious, daddy," she said navely.
"You could have all of the men in the county!" he declared proudly.
"Only," he added quickly, "it wouldn"t seem jest right an" proper."
"There was a girl at Miss Brown"s a year ago who had loads of money, and yet she declared she was going to have an occupation. n.o.body knew much about her or why she left school suddenly in the middle of a term. I liked her, for she was very nice to me when I first went there, a stranger. Mr. Reddon--you"ve heard me speak of him--was devoted to her, and I"m sure she liked him. It was only yesterday I heard from her. She is going to teach school in this township next winter."
"An" she"s got money?"
"I am sure she had it in those days. It"s the strangest thing in the world that she should be coming here to teach school in No. 5.
Congressman Ritchey secured the appointment for her, she says. The township trustee--whatever his name is--for a long time insisted that he must appoint a teacher from Tinkletown and not an outsider. I am glad she is coming here because--well, daddy, because she is like the girls I knew in the city. She has asked me to look up a boarding place for next winter. Do you know of any one, daddy, who could let her have a nice room?"
"I"ll bet my ears you"d like to have your ma take her in right here. But I don"t see how it c"n be done, Rosie-posie. There"s so derned many of us now, an"--"
"Oh, I didn"t mean that, daddy. She couldn"t come here. But don"t you think Mrs. Jim Holabird would take her in for the winter?"
"P"raps. She"s a widder. She might let her have Jim"s room now that there"s a vacancy. You might go over an" ast her about it to-morrer.
It"s a good thing she"s a friend of yourn, Rosalie, because if she wasn"t I"d have to fight her app"intment."
"Why, daddy!" reproachfully.
"Well, she"s a foreigner, an" I don"t think it"s right to give her a job when we"ve got so many home products that want the place an" who look unpopular enough to fill the bill. I"m fer home industry every time, an"
"specially as this girl don"t appear to need the place. I don"t see what business Congressman Ritchey has foolin" with our school system anyhow.
He"d better be reducin" the tariff er increasin" the pensions down to Washington."
"I quite agree with you, Daddy Crow," said Rosalie with a diplomacy that always won for her. She knew precisely how to handle her guardian, and that was why she won where his own daughters failed. "And now, good-night, daddy. Go to bed and don"t worry about me. You"ll have me on your hands much longer than you think or want. What time is it?"
Anderson patted her head reflectively as he solemnly drew his huge silver time-piece from an unlocated pocket. He held it out into the bright moonlight.
"Geminy crickets!" he exclaimed. "It"s forty-nine minutes to twelve!"
Anderson Crow"s policy was to always look at things through the small end of the telescope.
The slow, hot summer wore away, and to Rosalie it was the longest that she ever had experienced. She was tired of the ceaseless twaddle of Tinkletown, its flow of "missions," "sociables," "buggy-horses," "George Rawlin"s new dress-suit," "harvesting," and "politics"--for even the children talked politics. Nor did the a.s.siduous attentions of the village young men possess the power to shorten the days for her--and they certainly lengthened the nights. She liked them because they were her friends from the beginning--and Rosalie was not a sn.o.b. Not for the world would she have hurt the feelings of one poor, humble, adoring soul in Tinkletown; and while her smile was none the less sweet, her laugh none the less joyous, in her heart there was the hidden longing that smiled only in dreams. She longed for the day that was to bring Elsie Banks to live with Mrs. Holabird, for with her would come a breath of the world she had known for two years, and which she had learned to love so well.
In three months seven men had asked her to marry them. Of the seven, one only had the means or the prospect of means to support her. He was a gra.s.s-widower with five grown children. Anderson took occasion to warn her against widowers.
"Why," he said, "they"re jest like widders. You know Dave Smith that runs the tavern down street, don"t you? Well, doggone ef he didn"t turn in an" marry a widder with seven childern an" a husband, an" he"s led a dog"s life ever sence."
"Seven children and a husband? Daddy Crow!"
"Yep. Her derned husband wouldn"t stay divorced when he found out Dave could support a fambly as big as that. He figgered it would be jest as easy to take keer of eight as seven, so he perlitely attached hisself to Dave"s kitchen an" started in to eat hisself to death. Dave was goin" to have his wife apply fer another divorce an" leave the name blank, so"s he could put in either husband ef it came to a pinch, but I coaxed him out of it. He finally got rid of the feller by askin" him one day to sweep out the office. He could eat all right, but it wasn"t natural fer him to work, so he skipped out. Next I heerd of him he had married a widder who was gittin" a pension because her first husband fit fer his country. The Government shet off the pension jest as soon as she got married ag"in, and then that blamed cuss took in washin" fer her. He stayed away from home on wash-days, but as every day was wash-day with her, he didn"t see her by daylight fer three years. She died, an" now he"s back at Dave"s ag"in. He calls Dave his husband-in-law."
It required all of Anderson"s social and official diplomacy to forestall an indignation meeting when it was announced that a stranger, Miss Banks, had been selected to teach school No. 5. There was some talk of mobbing the township trustee and Board of County Commissioners, but Anderson secured the names of the more virulent talkers and threatened to "jail" them for conspiracy.
"Why, Anderson," almost wailed George Ray, "that girl"s from the city.
What does she know about grammar an" history an" all that? They don"t teach anything but French an" Italian in the cities an" you know it."
"Pshaw!" sniffed Anderson. "I hate grammar an" always did. I c"n talk better Italian than grammar right now, an" I hope Miss Banks will teach every child in the district how to talk French. You"d orter hear Rosalie talk it. Besides, Rosie says she"s a nice girl an"--an" needs the job." Anderson lied bravely, but he swallowed twice in doing it.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "September brought elsie banks"]
September brought Elsie Banks to make life worth living for Rosalie. The two girls were constantly together, talking over the old days and what the new ones were to bring forth, especially for Miss Gray, who had resumed wood carving as a temporary occupation. Miss Banks was more than ever reluctant to discuss her own affairs, and Rosalie after a few trials was tactful enough to respect her mute appeal. It is doubtful if either of the girls mentioned the name of big, handsome Tom Reddon--Tom, who had rowed in his college crew; but it is safe to say that both of them thought of him more than once those long, soft, autumn nights--nights when Tinkletown"s beaux were fairly tumbling over themselves in the effort to make New York life seem like a flimsy shadow in comparison.
CHAPTER XI
Elsie Banks
Aderson Crow stood afar off--among the bleak, leafless trees of Badger"s Grove--and gazed thoughtfully, even earnestly, upon the little red schoolhouse with its high brick chimney and snow-clad roof. A biting January wind cut through his whiskers and warmed his nose to a half-broiled shade of red. On the lapel of his overcoat glistened his social and official badges, augmented by a new and particularly shiny emblem of respect bestowed by the citizens of Tinkletown.