"Yes, pa."
"Whatever he is, he don"t git it from his pa," put in Marthy Burr as she bent over the shirt. "He ain"t got nothin" of yo"rn onless it"s yo"
hair, an" that"s done sobered down till you wouldn"t know it."
Amos waited patiently until she had finished, and then went on heavily as if the pause had been intentional, not enforced.
"You"ve got as much schoolin" as most city chaps," he said. "Much good it"ll do you, I reckon. I never saw nothin" come of larnin" yet, "cep"n worthlessness. But you"d set yo" mind on it, an" you"ve got it."
"Thar warn"t none of yo" hand in that, Amos Burr," cried his wife, checking him again before he had recovered breath from his last sentence. "Many"s the night I"ve wrastled with you till you war clean wore out with sleeplessness, "fo" you"d let the child keep on at his books."
"I ain"t never seen no good come of it," repeated Burr stolidly; then he returned to Nicholas.
"I reckon you"ll want to do somethin" for the family, now," he said, "seein" yo" ma is well wore out an" the brindle cow died calvin", an"
Sairy Jane is a hard worker."
Nicholas looked at him without speaking.
"Yes?" he said inquiringly, and his voice was dull.
"I was talkin" to Jerry Pollard," continued his father, letting his slow eyes rest upon his son"s, "an" he said you war as likely a chap as thar was roun" here, and he reckoned you"d be pretty quick in business."
"Yes?" said Nicholas again in the same tone.
Amos Burr was silent for a moment, and his wife filled in the pause with a series of running interjections. When they were over her husband took up his words.
"He wants a young fellow about his store, he says, as can look arter the books an" the business. He"s gittin" too old to keep up with the city ways an" look peart at the ladies--he"ll pay a nice little sum in cash every week."
"Yes?" repeated Nicholas, still interrogatively.
"An" he wants to know if you"ll take the place--you"re jest the sort of chap he wants, he says--somebody as will be bright at praisin" up the calicky to the gals when they come shoppin". Thar"s nothin" like a young man behind the counter to draw the gals, he says."
Nicholas shook his head impatiently, clasping the books tightly beneath his arm. His gaze had grown harsh and repellent.
"But I am going into the judge"s office," he answered. "I am going--"
Then he checked himself, baffled by the ma.s.sive ignorance he confronted.
Amos Burr drew one shoulder from the fire and offered the other. A slow steam rose from his smoking shirt, and the room was filled with the odour of scorching cotton.
"Thar ain"t much cash in that, I reckon," he said.
Nicholas took a step forward, still facing his father with obstinate eyes. One of the books slipped from his arm and fell to the floor, with open leaves, but he let it lie. He was watching his father"s jaws as they rose and fell over the quid of tobacco.
"No, there is not much cash in that," he repeated.
"Things have gone mighty hard," said Amos Burr. "It"s been a bad year. I ain"t sayin" nothin" "bout the work yo" ma an" Sairy Jane an" me have done. That don"t seem to count, somehow. But nothin" ain"t come straight, an" thar ain"t a cent to pay the taxes. If we can"t manage to tide over this comin" winter thar"ll have to be a mortgage in the spring."
Sairy Jane began to cry softly. One of the children joined in.
"Give me time," said Nicholas breathlessly. "Give me time. I"ll pay it all in time." Then the sound of Sairy Jane"s sobs maddened him and he turned upon her with an oath. "d.a.m.n you! Can"t you be quiet?"
It seemed to him that they were all closing upon him and that there was no opening of escape.
Marthy Burr put down her iron and came to where he stood, laying her hand upon his sleeve.
"Don"t mind "em, Nick," she said, and her sharp voice broke suddenly.
"Go ahead an" make a man of yo"self, mortgage or no mortgage."
Nicholas lifted his gaze from the floor and looked into his stepmother"s face. Then he looked at her hand as it lay upon his arm.
That trembling hand brought to him more fully than words, more clearly than visions, the pathos of her life.
"Don"t you worry, ma," he said quietly at last. "It"ll be all right.
Don"t you worry."
Then he let her hand slip from his shoulder and left the room.
He pa.s.sed out upon the back porch and stood gazing vacantly across the outlook.
It rained heavily, the drops descending in horizontal lengths like a fantastic fall of colourless pine needles. Overhead the clouds were black, impenetrable.
Through the falling rain he looked at the view before him, at the overgrown yard, at the manure heaps near the stable, at the grim rows of staves in the peanut field, at the sombre and deserted landscape. A raw wind blew in gusts from the northeast, and the distorted ailanthus tree in the yard moaned and wrung its twisted limbs. Sharp, unpleasant odours came from the pig-pen in the barnyard, where the rain was scattering the slops in the trough. A bull bellowed in a far-off pasture. Before the hen-house door several dripping fowls strutted with wilted feathers.
He saw it all in silence, with the dogged eyes of one whose gaze is turned inward. He made no gesture, uttered no exclamation. He was as motionless as the lintel of the door on which he leaned.
Suddenly a gust of wind whipped the rain into his face. He turned, reentered the house, closed the door carefully, and went upstairs.
III
The next morning Nicholas went into the judge"s study and declined the offer of the day before.
"I shan"t read law, after all," he said slowly. "There is a business opening for me here, and I"ll take advantage of it." He spoke in set phrases, as if he had rehea.r.s.ed the sentences many times.
"Business!" echoed the judge incredulously. "Why, what business is going on in Kingsborough?"
Nicholas flushed a deep red, but his glance did not waver.
"Jerry Pollard wants me in his store, sir."
The judge removed his gla.s.ses, wiped them deliberately on his silk handkerchief, put them on again, and regarded the younger man attentively.
"And you wish to go into Jerry Pollard"s store?" he inquired.
"I think it is the best thing I can do."
"The best paying thing, I presume?"