"Thirty-two years!" I repeated; "you"ve been at it a long time."
With that I plied him with questions in the liveliest manner, and in five minutes I had the gruff old fellow stumping along at my side and pointing out the various notable-features of his wonderful creation.
His suppressed excitement was quite wonderful to see. He would point his hickory stick with a poking motion, and, when he looked up, instead of throwing back his big, rough head, he bent at the hips, thus imparting an impression of astonishing solidity.
"It took me all o" ten years to get that bell right," he said, and, "Take a look at that arch: now what is your opinion o" that?"
Once, in the midst of our conversation, he checked himself abruptly and looked around at me with a sudden dark expression of suspicion. I saw exactly what lay in his mind, but I continued my questioning as though I perceived no change in him. It was only momentary, however, and he was soon as much interested as before. He talked as though he had not had such an opportunity before in years--and I doubt whether he had. It was plain to see that if any one ever loved anything in this world, Old Toombs loved that hedge of his. Think of it, indeed! He had lived with it, nurtured it, clipped it, groomed it--for thirty-two years.
So we walked down the sloping field within the hedge, and it seemed as though one of the deep mysteries of human nature was opening there before me. What strange things men set their hearts upon!
Thus, presently, we came nearly to the farther end of the hedge. Here the old man stopped and turned around, facing me.
"Do you see that valley?" he asked. "Do you see that slopin" valley up through the meadow?"
His voice rose suddenly to a sort of high-pitched violence.
"That" pa.s.sel o" hounds up there," he said, "want to build a road down my valley."
He drew his breath fiercely.
"They want to build a road through my land. They want to ruin my farm--they want to cut down my hedge. I"ll fight "em. I"ll fight "em.
I"ll show "em yet!"
It was appalling. His face grew purple, his eyes narrowed to pin points and grew red and angry--like the eyes of an infuriated boar. His hands shook. Suddenly he turned upon me, poising his stick in his hand, and said violently.
"And who are you? Who are you? Are you one of these surveyor fellows?"
"My name," I answered as quietly as I could, "is Grayson. I live on the old Mather farm. I am not in the least interested in any of your road troubles."
He looked at me a moment more, and then seemed to shake himself or shudder, his eyes dropped away and he began walking toward his house.
He had taken only a few steps, however, before he turned, and, without looking at me, asked if I would like to see the tools he used for tr.i.m.m.i.n.g his hedge. When I hesitated, for I was decidedly uncomfortable, he came up to me and laid his hand awkwardly on my arm.
"You"ll see something, I warrant, you never see before."
It was so evident that he regretted his outbreak that I followed him, and he showed me an odd double ladder set on low wheels which he said he used in tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the higher parts of his hedge.
"It"s my own invention," he said with pride.
"And that"--he pointed as we came out of the tool shed--"is my house--a good house. I planned it all myself. I never needed to take lessons of any carpenter I ever see. And there"s my barns. What do you think o" my barns? Ever see any bigger ones? They ain"t any bigger in this country than Old Toombs"s barns. They don"t like Old Toombs, but they ain"t any of one of "em can ekal his barns!"
He followed me down to the roadside now quite loquacious. Even after I had thanked him and started to go he called after me.
When I stopped he came forward hesitatingly--and I had the impressions, suddenly, and for the first time that he was an old man. It may have been the result of his sudden fierce explosion of anger, but his hand shook, his face was pale, and he seemed somehow broken.
"You--you like my hedge?" he asked.
"It is certainly wonderful hedge," I said. "I never have seen anything like it?"
"The" AIN"T nothing like it," he responded, quickly. "The" ain"t nothing like it anywhere."
In the twilight as I pa.s.sed onward I saw the lonely figure of the old man moving with his hickory stick up the pathway to his lonely house.
The poor rich old man!
"He thinks he can live wholly to himself," I said aloud.
I thought, as I tramped homeward, of our friendly and kindly community, of how we often come together of an evening with skylarking and laughter, of how we weep with one another, of how we join in making better roads and better schools, and building up the Scotch Preacher"s friendly little church. And in all these things Old Toombs has never had a part. He is not even missed.
As a matter of fact, I reflected, and this is a strange, deep thing, no man is in reality more dependent upon the community which he despises and holds at arm"s length than this same Old Nathan Toombs. Everything he has, everything he does, gives evidence of it. And I don"t mean this in any mere material sense, though of course his wealth and his farm would mean no more than the stones in his hills to him if he did not have us here around him. Without our work, our buying, our selling, our governing, his dollars would be dust. But we are still more necessary to him in other ways: the unfriendly man is usually the one who demands most from his neighbours. Thus, if he have not people"s love or confidence, then he will smite them until they fear him, or admire him, or hate him. Oh, no man, however may try, can hold himself aloof!
I came home deeply stirred from my visit with Old Toombs and lost no time in making further inquiries. I learned, speedily, that there was indeed something in the old man"s dread of a road being built through his farm. The case was already in the courts. His farm was a very old one and extensive, and of recent years a large settlement of small farmers had been developing the rougher lands in the upper part of the townships called the Swan Hill district. Their only way to reach the railroad was by a rocky, winding road among the "hills," while their outlet was down a gently sloping valley through Old Toombs"s farm. They were now so numerous and politically important that they had stirred up the town authorities. A proposition had been made to Old Toombs for a right-of-way; they argued with him that it was a good thing for the whole country, that it would enhance the values of his own upper lands, and that they would pay him far more for a right-of-way than the land was actually worth, but he had spurned them--I can imagine with what vehemence.
"Let "em drive round," he said. "Didn"t they know what they"d have to do when they settled up there? What a pa.s.sel o" curs! They can keep off o"
my land, or I"ll have the law on "em."
And thus the matter came to the courts with the town attempting to condemn the land for a road through Old Toombs"s farm.
"What can we do?" asked the Scotch Preacher, who was deeply distressed by the bitterness of feeling displayed. "There is no getting to the man.
He will listen to no one."
At one time I thought of going over and talking with Old Toombs myself, for it seemed that I had been able to get nearer to him than any one had in a long time. But I dreaded it. I kept dallying--for what, indeed, could I have said to him? If he had been suspicious of me before, how much more hostile he might be when I expressed an interest in his difficulties. As to reaching the Swan Hill settlers, they were now aroused to an implacable state of bitterness; and they had the people of the whole community with them, for no one liked Old Toombs.
Thus while I hesitated time pa.s.sed and my next meeting with Old Toombs, instead of being premeditated, came about quite unexpectedly. I was walking in the town road late one afternoon when I heard a wagon rattling behind me, and then, quite suddenly, a shouted, "Whoa."
Looking around, I saw Old Toombs, his great solid figure mounted high on the wagon seat, the reins held fast in the fingers of one hand. I was struck by the strange expression in his face--a sort of grim exaltation.
As I stepped aside he burst out in a loud, shrill, cackling laugh:
"He-he-he--he-he-he--"
I was too astonished to speak at once. Ordinarily when I meet any one in the town road it is in my heart to cry out to him,
"Good morning, friend," or, "How are you, brother?" but I had no such prompting that day.
"Git in, Grayson," he said; "git in, git in."
I climbed up beside him, and he slapped me on the knee with another burst of shrill laughter.
"They thought they had the old man," he said, starting up his horses.
"They thought there weren"t no law left in Israel. I showed "em."
I cannot convey the bitter triumphancy of his voice.
"You mean the road case?" I asked.
"Road case!" he exploded, "they wan"t no road case; they didn"t have no road case. I beat "em. I says to "em, "What right hev any o" you on my property? Go round with you," I says. Oh, I beat "em. If they"d had their way, they"d "a" cut through my hedge--the hounds!"
When he set me down at my door, I had said hardly a word. There seemed nothing that could be said. I remember I stood for some time watching the old man as he rode away, his wagon jolting in the country road, his stout figure perched firmly in the seat. I went in with a sense of heaviness at the heart.