And, of course, I couldn't dispute that.

And he added, "That anyway there wuz too much a-bein' done for him. He wuz made too much of."

He didn't believe in wimmen, made a specialty of that, from Neny back to Rachael and Ruth. He powed at wimmen's work, at their efforts, their learnin', their advancement.

Neny, good little bashful thing, wuz a member of the WCTU and the Christian Endeavor, and wanted to do jest right by them n.o.ble societies and the world. But, oh, how light he would speak of them n.o.ble bands of workers in the World's warfare with wrong! To how small a s.p.a.ce he wanted to reduce 'em down!

And I sez to him once, "You can't do very much towards belittlin' a n.o.ble army of workers as that is--millions strong."

"Millions weak, you mean," sez he. "I dare presoom to say there hain't a woman amongst 'em but what is afraid of a mouse, and would run from a striped snake."

Sez I, "They don't run from the serpent Evil, that is wreathin' round their homes and loved ones, and a-tryin' to destroy 'em--they run towards that serpent, and hain't afraid to grapple with it, and overthrow it--by the help of the Mighty," sez I.

Sez he, "There is too much made of their work." Sez he, "There hain't near so much done as folks think; the most of it is talk, and a-praisin'

each other up."

"Wall," sez I, "men won't never be killed for that in their political rivalin's, they won't be condemned for praisin' each other up."

"No," sez he, "men know too much."

And then I spoke of that silver woman--how beautiful and n.o.ble an appearance she made, in the spear she ort to be in, a-representin'

Justice.

And Nony said, "She wuz too soft." Sez he, "It is with her as it is with all other wimmen--men have to stand in front of her with guns to keep her together, to keep her solid."

That kinder gaulded me, for there wuz some truth in it, for I had seen the men and the rifles.

But I sprunted up, and sez I--

"They are a-guardin' her to keep men from stealin' her, that is what they are for. And," sez I, "it would be a good thing for lots of wimmen, who have got lots of silver, if it hain't in their bodies, if they had a guard a-walkin' round 'em with rifles to keep off maurauders."

Why, there wuzn't nothin' brung up that he believed in, or that he didn't act morbid over.

Why, I believe his Ma--good, decent-lookin' widder with false hair and a swelled neck, but well-to-do--wuz ashamed of him.

Right acrost from me to the table sot a fur different creeter. It wuz a man in the prime of life, and wisdom, and culture, who _did_ believe in things. You could tell that by the first look in his face--handsome--sincere--ardent. With light brown hair, tossed kinder careless back from a broad white forward--deep blue, impetuous-lookin'

eyes, but restrained by sense from goin' too fur. A silky mustache the same color of his hair, and both with a considerable number of white threads a-shinin' in 'em, jest enough so's you could tell that old Time hadn't forgot him as he went up and down the earth with his hour-gla.s.s under his arm, and his scythe over his shoulder.

He had a tall, n.o.ble figger, always dressed jest right, so's you would never think of his clothes, but always remember him simply as bein' a gentleman, helpful, courteous, full of good-nature and good-natured wit and fun. But yet with a sort of a sad look underlyin' the fun, some as deep waters look under the frothy sparkle on top, as if they had secrets they might tell if they wuz a mind to--secrets of dark places down, fur down, where the sun doesn't shine; secrets of joy and happiness, and hope that had gone down, and wuz carried under the depths--under the depths that we hadn't no lines to fathom.

No, if there wuz any secrets of sadness underlyin' the frank openness and pleasantness of them clear blue eyes, we hadn't none of us no way of tellin'.

We hadn't no ways of peerin' down under the clear blue depths, any further than he wuz willin' to let us.

All we knew wuz, that though he looked happy and looked good-natured, back of it all, a-peerin' out sometimes when you didn't look for it, wuz a sunthin' that looked like the shadder cast from a hoverin'

lonesomeness, and sorrow, and regret.

But he wuz a good-lookin' feller, there hain't a doubt of that, and good actin' and smart.

He wuz a bacheldor, and we could all see plain that Miss Plank held his price almost above rubies.

If there wuz any good bits among vittles that wuz always good, it wuz Miss Plank's desire that he should have them bits; if there wuz drafts a-comin' from any pint of the compa.s.s, it wuz Miss Plank's desire to not have him blowed on. If any soft zephyr's breath wuz wafted to any one of us from a open winder on a hot evenin' or sunny noon, he wuz the one she wanted wafted to, and breathed on.

If her smiles fell warm on any, or all on us, he wuz the one they fell warmest on. But we all liked him the best that ever wuz. Even Nony Piddock seemed to sort of onbend a little, and moisten up with the dew of charity his arid desert of idees a little mite, when he wuz around.

And occasionally, when the bacheldor, whose name wuz Mr. Freeman, when he would, half in fun and half in earnest, answer Nony's weary and bitter remarks, once in a while even that aged youth would seem to be ashamed of himself, and his own idees.

There wuz another widder there--Miss Boomer; or I shouldn't call her a clear widder--I guess she wuz a sort of a semi-detached one--I guess she had parted with him.

Wall, she cast warm smiles on Mr. Freeman--awful warm, almost meltin'.

Miss Plank didn't like Miss Boomer.

Miss Piddock didn't want to cast no looks onto n.o.body, nor make no impressions. She wuz a mourner for Old Piddock, that anybody could see with one eye, or hear with one ear--that is, if they could understand the secrets of sithes; they wuz deep ones as I ever hearn, and I have hearn deep ones in my time, if anybody ever did, and breathed 'em out myself--the land knows I have!

Miss Plank loved Miss Piddock like a sister; she said that she felt drawed to her from the first, and the drawin's had gone on ever sence--growin' more stronger all the time.

Wall, there wuz two elderly men, very respectable, with two wives, one apiece, lawful and right, and their children, and Miss Schack and her three children, and a Mr. Bolster, and that wuz all there wuz of us, includin' and takin' in my pardner and myself.

Mr. Freeman wuz very rich, so Miss Plank said, and had three or four splendid rooms, the best--"sweet"--in the house, she said.

I spoze she spoke in that way to let us know they wuz furnished _sweet_--that is, I spoze so.

His mother had died there, and he couldn't bear to know that anybody else had her rooms; so he kep 'em all, and paid high for 'em, so she said, and wuz as much to be depended on for punctuality, and honesty, as the Bank of England, or the mines of Golcondy.

Yes, Miss Plank said that, with all his sociable, pleasant ways with everybody, he wuz a millionare--made it in sugar, I believe she said--I know it wuz sunthin' good to eat, and sort o' sweet--it might have been mola.s.ses--I won't be sure.

But anyway he got so awful rich by it that he could live anywhere he wuz a mind to--in a palace, if he took it into his head to want one.

But instead of branchin' out and makin' a great show, he jest kep right on a-livin' in the rooms he had took so long ago for his family. But they had all gone and left him, his mother dead, and his two nieces gone with their father to California, where they wuz in a convent school.

And he kep right on a-livin' in the old rooms.

Miss Plank told me in confidence, and on the hair-cloth sofa in the upper hall, that it would be a big wrench if he ever left there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Miss Plank told me in confidence that it would be a big wrench if he left.]

She said, "She didn't say it because he wuz a bacheldor and she a widder, she said it out of pure-respect."

And I believed it, a good deal of the time I did; for good land! she wuz old enough to be his ma, and more too.

But he acted dretful pretty to her, I could see that. Not findin' no fault, eatin' hash jest as calm as if he wuzn't engaged in a strange and mysterious business.

For great, _great_ is the mystery of boardin'-house hash.

Not a-mindin' the children's noise--indeed, a-courtin' it, as you may say, for he would coax the youngest and most troublesome one away from its tired mother sometimes, and keep it by him at the table, and wait on it.

He thought his eyes of children, so Miss Plank said.

I might have thought that he took care of the child on its mother's account, out of sentiment instead of pity, if Miss Schack hadn't been as humbly as humbly could be, and a big wart on the end of her nose, and a cowlick. She had three children, and they wuz awful, awful to git along with.