They"ll always remember us as we"re dancing together now. We"re making a legend. Where"s my waltz, boys?" he called as they whirled past the fiddlers.
The musicians grinned, looked at each other, hesitated, and began a new air; and Nils sang with them, as the couples fell from a quick waltz to a long, slow glide:
"When other lips and other hearts Their tale of love shall tell, In language whose excess imparts The power they feel so well."
The old women applauded vigorously. "What a gay one he is, that Nils!"
And old Mrs. Svendsen"s cap lurched dreamily from side to side to the flowing measure of the dance.
"Of days that have as ha-a-p-py been, And you"ll remember me."
VII
The moonlight flooded that great, silent land. The reaped fields lay yellow in it. The straw stacks and poplar windbreaks threw sharp black shadows. The roads were white rivers of dust. The sky was a deep, crystalline blue, and the stars were few and faint. Everything seemed to have succ.u.mbed, to have sunk to sleep, under the great, golden, tender, midsummer moon. The splendour of it seemed to transcend human life and human fate. The senses were too feeble to take it in, and every time one looked up at the sky one felt unequal to it, as if one were sitting deaf under the waves of a great river of melody. Near the road, Nils Ericson was lying against a straw stack in Olaf"s wheat field. His own life seemed strange and unfamiliar to him, as if it were something he had read about, or dreamed, and forgotten. He lay very still, watching the white road that ran in front of him, lost itself among the fields, and then, at a distance, reappeared over a little hill. At last, against this white band he saw something moving rapidly, and he got up and walked to the edge of the field. "She is pa.s.sing the row of poplars now," he thought. He heard the padded beat of hoofs along the dusty road, and as she came into sight he stepped out and waved his arms.
Then, for fear of frightening the horse, he drew back and waited. Clara had seen him, and she came up at a walk. Nils took the horse by the bit and stroked his neck.
"What are you doing out so late, Clara Vavrika? I went to the house, but Johanna told me you had gone to your father"s."
"Who can stay in the house on a night like this? Aren"t you out yourself?"
"Ah, but that"s another matter."
Nils turned the horse into the field.
"What are you doing? Where are you taking Norman?"
"Not far, but I want to talk to you tonight; I have something to say to you. I can"t talk to you at the house, with Olaf sitting there on the porch, weighing a thousand tons."
Clara laughed. "He won"t be sitting there now. He"s in bed by this time, and asleep--weighing a thousand tons."
Nils plodded on across the stubble. "Are you really going to spend the rest of your life like this, night after night, summer after summer?
Haven"t you anything better to do on a night like this than to wear yourself and Norman out tearing across the country to your father"s and back? Besides, your father won"t live forever, you know. His little place will be shut up or sold, and then you"ll have n.o.body but the Ericsons. You"ll have to fasten down the hatches for the winter then."
Clara moved her head restlessly. "Don"t talk about that. I try never to think of it. If I lost Father I"d lose everything, even my hold over the Ericsons."
"Bah! You"d lose a good deal more than that. You"d lose your race, everything that makes you yourself. You"ve lost a good deal of it now."
"Of what?"
"Of your love of life, your capacity for delight."
Clara put her hands up to her face. "I haven"t, Nils Ericson, I haven"t!
Say anything to me but that. I won"t have it!" she declared vehemently.
Nils led the horse up to a straw stack, and turned to Clara, looking at her intently, as he had looked at her that Sunday afternoon at Vavrika"s. "But why do you fight for that so? What good is the power to enjoy, if you never enjoy? Your hands are cold again; what are you afraid of all the time? Ah, you"re afraid of losing it; that"s what"s the matter with you! And you will, Clara Vavrika, you will! When I used to know you--listen; you"ve caught a wild bird in your hand, haven"t you, and felt its heart beat so hard that you were afraid it would shatter its little body to pieces? Well, you used to be just like that, a slender, eager thing with a wild delight inside you. That is how I remembered you. And I come back and find you--a bitter woman. This is a perfect ferret fight here; you live by biting and being bitten. Can"t you remember what life used to be? Can"t you remember that old delight?
I"ve never forgotten it, or known its like, on land or sea."
He drew the horse under the shadow of the straw stack. Clara felt him take her foot out of the stirrup, and she slid softly down into his arms. He kissed her slowly. He was a deliberate man, but his nerves were steel when he wanted anything. Something flashed out from him like a knife out of a sheath. Clara felt everything slipping away from her; she was flooded by the summer night. He thrust his hand into his pocket, and then held it out at arm"s length. "Look," he said. The shadow of the straw stack fell sharp across his wrist, and in the palm of his hand she saw a silver dollar shining. "That"s my pile," he muttered; "will you go with me?"
Clara nodded, and dropped her forehead on his shoulder.
Nils took a deep breath. "Will you go with me tonight?"
"Where?" she whispered softly.
"To town, to catch the midnight flyer."
Clara lifted her head and pulled herself together. "Are you crazy, Nils?
We couldn"t go away like that."
"That"s the only way we ever will go. You can"t sit on the bank and think about it. You have to plunge. That"s the way I"ve always done, and it"s the right way for people like you and me. There"s nothing so dangerous as sitting still. You"ve only got one life, one youth, and you can let it slip through your fingers if you want to; nothing easier.
Most people do that. You"d be better off tramping the roads with me than you are here." Nils held back her head and looked into her eyes. "But I"m not that kind of a tramp, Clara. You won"t have to take in sewing.
I"m with a Norwegian shipping line; came over on business with the New York offices, but now I"m going straight back to Bergen. I expect I"ve got as much money as the Ericsons. Father sent me a little to get started. They never knew about that. There, I hadn"t meant to tell you; I wanted you to come on your own nerve."
Clara looked off across the fields. "It isn"t that, Nils, but something seems to hold me. I"m afraid to pull against it. It comes out of the ground, I think."
"I know all about that. One has to tear loose. You"re not needed here.
Your father will understand; he"s made like us. As for Olaf, Johanna will take better care of him than ever you could. It"s now or never, Clara Vavrika. My bag"s at the station; I smuggled it there yesterday."
Clara clung to him and hid her face against his shoulder. "Not tonight,"
she whispered. "Sit here and talk to me tonight. I don"t want to go anywhere tonight. I may never love you like this again."
Nils laughed through his teeth. "You can"t come that on me. That"s not my way, Clara Vavrika. Eric"s mare is over there behind the stacks, and I"m off on the midnight. It"s goodbye, or off across the world with me.
My carriage won"t wait. I"ve written a letter to Olaf, I"ll mail it in town. When he reads it he won"t bother us--not if I know him. He"d rather have the land. Besides, I could demand an investigation of his administration of Cousin Henrik"s estate, and that would be bad for a public man. You"ve no clothes, I know; but you can sit up tonight, and we can get everything on the way. Where"s your old dash, Clara Vavrika?
What"s become of your Bohemian blood? I used to think you had courage enough for anything. Where"s your nerve--what are you waiting for?"
Clara drew back her head, and he saw the slumberous fire in her eyes.
"For you to say one thing, Nils Ericson."
"I never say that thing to any woman, Clara Vavrika." He leaned back, lifted her gently from the ground, and whispered through his teeth: "But I"ll never, never let you go, not to any man on earth but me! Do you understand me? Now, wait here."
Clara sank down on a sheaf of wheat and covered her face with her hands.
She did not know what she was going to do--whether she would go or stay.
The great, silent country seemed to lay a spell upon her. The ground seemed to hold her as if by roots. Her knees were soft under her. She felt as if she could not bear separation from her old sorrows, from her old discontent. They were dear to her, they had kept her alive, they were a part of her. There would be nothing left of her if she were wrenched away from them. Never could she pa.s.s beyond that skyline against which her restlessness had beat so many times. She felt as if her soul had built itself a nest there on that horizon at which she looked every morning and every evening, and it was dear to her, inexpressibly dear. She pressed her fingers against her eyeb.a.l.l.s to shut it out. Beside her she heard the tramping of horses in the soft earth.
Nils said nothing to her. He put his hands under her arms and lifted her lightly to her saddle. Then he swung himself into his own.
"We shall have to ride fast to catch the midnight train. A last gallop, Clara Vavrika. Forward!"
There was a start, a thud of hoofs along the moonlit road, two dark shadows going over the hill; and then the great, still land stretched untroubled under the azure night. Two shadows had pa.s.sed.
VII
A year after the flight of Olaf Ericson"s wife, the night train was steaming across the plains of Iowa. The conductor was hurrying through one of the day coaches, his lantern on his arm, when a lank, fair-haired boy sat up in one of the plush seats and tweaked him by the coat.
"What is the next stop, please, sir?"
"Red Oak, Iowa. But you go through to Chicago, don"t you?" He looked down, and noticed that the boy"s eyes were red and his face was drawn, as if he were in trouble.