"May I ask if it was made for anybody who died lately?"
"I made it for myself--I have had it by me for twenty years! Seeing that thee must stick thy nose into my business!" His tone was pettish and he stooped down and began to toss splinters and broken boards upon the woodpile.
"Then I suppose it was--er--sort of out of date," suggested Farr, blandly.
"I see thee is minded to tease me--the world is full of fools." He straightened as best he could, propping hands on his hips, and divided angry gaze between the man at the fence and the armored figure. "I am not going to die--I have decided to stay alive. I have a fool on my hands."
"Father, I think thee had better choose thy words a bit better in the presence of a stranger," advised the man in armor.
"Can"t thee see that he is a fool?" demanded the old man.
"I don"t think I want to venture an opinion, sir. I"ll simply say that your son"s choice of a summer suit seems a little peculiar. But, of course, every man to his liking!"
The old man walked down to the fence. He was crooked at the waist and his legs were hooked with the curves of age, but he strode along with brisk vigor. His gaze was as sharp as a gimlet, though the puckered lids were c.o.c.ked over his eyes with the effect of little tents whose flaps were partly closed. He put his face close to Farr"s.
"Thee is as cheeky as a crow and as prying as a magpie and I venture to say thee is a roving scamp. But I may as well talk to thee as to anybody."
With armor rattling and squeaking, the son started toward them.
"I do not care to have thee talk about me, father," he warned.
Farr noted that the son had eyes as keen and as gray as those of the elder. The armored citizen was st.u.r.dy and of middle age and the face under the vizor revealed intelligence and self-possession.
The father paid no heed to the son.
"Has thee traveled around the world much?"
"Yes, sir."
"Thee has met many men?"
"Many and of all sorts and conditions."
"Then I want to ask thee what thee thinks of the good wit of a man who declares that he will go forth into the world, faring here and there, to try to do good to all men, to try to settle the troubles between men, free of all price?"
Farr turned gaze from the father to the earnest countenance of the son, and then stared again into the searching eyes of the old man. Prolonged and embarra.s.sed silence followed.
"Thy looks speak louder than words," declared the father. "Thy eyes say it--he is a fool."
"It may be as well not to say so with thy tongue," advised the son. "I might not be as patient with a stranger as I am with my father. He is wholly practical, without imagination, and so I excuse him."
"I offer no comments," said Walker Farr with a frank smile which won an answering flicker from the face under the vizor. "I do not understand."
"I would not expect a vagabond to understand anything or to be brave enough to say what he thinks," piped the father. He turned on his son.
"Here"s a scalawag of a tramp. Go along with him and be another such."
"I may be a peripatetic philosopher, for all you know," said Farr, teasingly. "There are knights in fustian as well as knights in armor."
"I think thee is of more account than thy clothing indicates," stated the son, regarding the stranger keenly. "And thee carries a rose in thy hand. Little things tell much."
Farr put the flower into his pocket. "Don"t fool yourself about me," he said, roughly.
"Thy speech has betrayed thee," insisted the other.
"I have met crib-crackers who were college men--and pocket dictionaries are cheap. And so good day to you, gentlemen."
"Wait one moment!" appealed the man in armor. His face softened when he approached his father.
"We have talked much and there is no more to say to each other now.
I have served here patiently many years. If I leave thee for a little while there is old Ben to wait and tend. And I will come back after I have done my duty."
"I will stay alive so that I can bail thee out of prison," his father informed him, sourly. "Go on, thou fool; learn thy lesson! The world is all right as it is; it will cuff the ears of meddlers. But go on!"
"I would rather thee would show another spirit at parting--but have it thy way," returned the son, with Quaker repression of all emotions. He came forth from the gate.
"I am going thy road," he informed Farr, "because all ways are alike to me. I would be pleased to talk with one who has journeyed. Thee may have good counsel for me. May I walk with thee?"
The wayfarer opened his mouth and closed it suddenly on a half-spoken and indignant refusal of this honor. He pursed his lips and his thick brows drew together in a frown. Then, as if in spite of himself, he began to smile.
"I will be no burden to thee," pleaded the home-made knight. "I have had my armor for a long time and have practised walking in it."
"But why the tin suit?" expostulated Farr.
"I will explain as we walk."
"Well, come along!" blurted the wayfarer. "Nothing more can happen to me, anyway."
"So thee has found one of thy own kind to follow about in the world?"
inquired the father, tauntingly. "Feathers on the head and rattles in the hand! c.o.c.kahoops and fiddle-de-lorums! Thee"ll be back soon with thy folly cured after I have bailed thee from the calaboose! Then thee"ll stick to thy forge and be sensible!"
Farr noted a small shop by the roadside as they started off.
"My father is a good man, but practical--wholly practical," said his new comrade of the ways. "From my good mother I derive imagination. My life has not been happy here. But work has helped."
He pointed to the shop. Over the main door a faded, weather-worn sign advertised "Eastup Chick & Son, Blacksmiths." On the gable was a newer sign heralding "Jared Chick & Father, Inventors."
"I am Jared Chick, my friend."
He talked slowly, pausing to pick words, phrasing with the carefulness of the man of method, talking as those persons talk who have read many books and use their tongue but seldom. Farr found much quaintness in the solemn man"s discourse.
"My father put my name on the sign when I was young, and it pleased me.
I put his name on the other sign when he was old and it did not please him, though I have insisted that he must share in all credit which comes to me. But my father does not possess imagination. I am sorry he lost his temper to-day and broke up his coffin. Not that I approved of having it in the house all these years, but he was very proud of it. He made it soon after my mother died. I think, now that he has destroyed it, he will live many years longer. He is very strong-minded."
"I"m glad to have my suspicions confirmed," said Farr.
"He was extremely angry when his eldest brother died at eighty. He stood over him in the last moments and made us all very uncomfortable by telling Uncle Joachim that there was no need of his dying--that if he would only show a little Chick s.p.u.n.k he could stay alive just as well as not and would not go fushing out just when he was most needed in the Friends" meeting."
"Considering that the old fellow was eighty and probably felt like quitting, seems as if your father was rubbing it in just a little."