Only page of title Moderate
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sloping banks of the stream noted more for its
plenitude of "chubs" and "shiners" than the gamier
two- and four-pound bass for which, in season, so
many credulous anglers flock and lie in wait, stands
a country residence, so convenient to the stream,
and so inviting in its pleasant exterior and
comfortable surroundings -- barn, dairy, and spring-
house -- that the weary, sunburned, and disheartened
fisherman, out from the dusty town for a day of
recreation, is often wont to seek its hospitality.
a departure from the typical farmhouse, being
designed and fashioned with no regard to symmetry
or proportion, but rather, as is suggested, built to
conform to the matter-of-fact and most sensible
ideas of its owner, who, if it pleased him, would
have small windows where large ones ought to be,
and vice versa, whether they balanced properly to
the eye or not. And chimneys -- he would have as
many as he wanted, and no two alike, in either
height or size. And if he wanted the front of the
house turned from all possible view, as though
abashed at any chance of public scrutiny, why, that
was his affair and not the public's; and, with like
perversity, if he chose to thrust his kitchen under the public's
very nose, what should the generally
fagged-out, half-famished representative of that
dignified public do but reel in his dead minnow,
shoulder his fishing-rod, clamber over the back
fence of the old farmhouse and inquire within, or
jog back to the city, inwardly anathematizing that
particular locality or the whole rural district
in general.
looked to the writer of this sketch one week ago --
so individual it seemed -- so liberal, and yet so
independent. It wasn't even weather-boarded, but,
instead, was covered smoothly with cement,
as though the plasterers had come while the folks
were visiting, and so, unable to get at the interior,
had just plastered the outside.
trespassing. All was open -- gracious-looking -- pastoral.
The sward beneath my feet was velvet-like
in elasticity, and the scarce visible path I followed
through it led promptly to the open kitchen door.
From within I heard a woman singing some old
ballad in an undertone, while at the threshold a
trim, white-spurred rooster stood poised on one foot,
curving his glossy neck and cocking his wattled
head as though to catch the meaning of the words.
I paused. It was a scene I felt restrained from
breaking in upon, nor would I have, but for the
sound of a strong male voice coming around the
corner of the house:
turning abruptly toward the kitchen door, then pausing
as suddenly, with a backward motion of his thumb
-- "jest follow the path here down to the little
brick -- that's the spring -- and you'll find 'at you've
come to the right place fer drinkin'-worter! Hold
on a minute tel I get you a tumbler -- there's nothin'
down there but a tin."
turning mechanically, and following me down the path.
" 'Druther drink out of a tin -- er jest a fruit-can
with the top knocked off -- er -- er -- er a gourd," he
added in a zestful, reminiscent tone of voice, that
so heightened my impatient thirst that I reached
the spring-house fairly in a run.
delight, as I stood dipping my nose in the second
cupful of the cool, revivifying liquid, and peering in a
congratulatory kind of way at the blurred and rubicund
reflection of my features in the bottom of the
cup, "well-sir, blame-don! ef it don't do a feller
good to see you enjoyin' of it thataway! But don't
you drink too much o' the worter! -- 'cause there's
some sweet milk over there in one o' them crocks,
maybe; and ef you'll jest, kind o' keerful-like, lift
off the led of that third one, say, over there to
yer left, and dip you out a tinful er two o' that,
w'y, it'll do you good to drink it, and it'll do me
good to see you at it -- But hold up! -- hold up! "
he called, abruptly, as, nowise loath, I bent above
the vessel designated. "Hold yer hosses fer a second!
Here's Marthy; let her git it fer ye."
the master of the house, I was wholly startled and
chagrined in my present position before its mistress.
But as I arose, and stammered, in my confusion,
some incoherent apology, I was again reassured and
put at greater ease by the comprehensive and
forgiving smile the woman gave me, as I yielded her
my place, and, with lifted hat, awaited her further
kindness.
laughingly, as with strong, bare arms she reached across
the gurgling trough and replaced the lid that I had
partially removed. -- "I came just in time, I see, to
prevent father from having you dip into the morning's-
milk, which, of course, has scarcely a veil of
cream over the face of it as yet. But men, as you
are doubtless willing to admit," she went on jocularly,
"don't know about these things. You must
pardon father, as much for his well-meaning ignorance
of such matters, as for this cup of cream,
which I am sure you will better relish."
years of age. But the figure, and the rounded grace
and fulness of it, together with the features and the
eyes, completed as fine a specimen of physical and
mental health as ever it has been my fortune to
meet; there was something so full of purpose and
resolve -- something so wholesome, too, about the
character -- something so womanly -- I might almost
say manly, and would, but for the petty prejudice
maybe occasioned by the trivial fact of a locket
having dropped from her bosom as she knelt; and
that trinket still dangles in my memory even as it
then dangled and dropped back to its concealment
in her breast as she arose. But her face, by no
means handsome in the common sense of the word,
was marked with a breadth and strength of outline
and expression that approached the heroic -- a face
that once seen is forever fixed in memory -- a personage
once met one must know more of. And so it
was, that an hour later, as I strolled with the old
man about his farm, looking, to all intents, with the
profoundest interest at his Devonshires, Shorthorns,
Jerseys, and the like, I lured from him something
of an outline of his daughter's history.
mechanically answering some ingenious allusion to
her worth. "And yit," he went on reflectively,
stooping from his seat in the barn door and with
his open jack-knife picking up a little chip with the
point of the blade -- "and yit -- you wouldn't believe
it -- but Marthy was the oldest o' three daughters,
and hed -- I may say -- hed more advantages o' marryin' --
and yit, as I was jest goin' to say, she's the
very one 'at didn't marry. Hed every advantage --
Marthy did.
mother was a-livin' then -- and we was well enough
fixed to afford the educatin' of her, mother allus
contended -- and we was -- besides, it was Marthy's
notion, too, and you know how women is thataway
when they git their head set. So we sent Marthy
down to Indianop'lus, and got her books and put
her in school there, and paid fer her keepin' and
ever'thing; and she jest -- well, you may say, lived
there stiddy fer better'n four year. O' course
she'd git back ever' once-an-a-while, but her visits
was allus, some-way-another, onsatisfactory-like,
'cause, you see, Marthy was allus my favorite, and
I'd allus laughed and told her 'at the other girls
could git marrid ef they wanted, but SHE was goin'
to be the 'nest-egg' of our family, and 'slong as I
lived I wanted her at home with me. And she'd
laugh and contend 'at she'd as li'f be an old maid as
not, and never expected to marry, ner didn't want
to.
now adzackly -- but anyway, it 'peared like he had
plenty o' time to go and come, fer from that time
on he kep' on a-comin' -- ever' time Marthy 'ud
come home, he'd come, too; and I got to noticin' 'at
Marthy come home a good 'eal more'n she used to
afore Morris first brought her. And blame' ef the
thing didn't git to worryin' me! And onc't I spoke
to mother about it, and told her ef I thought the
feller wanted to marry Marthy I'd jest stop his
comin' right then and there. But mother she sort o'
smiled and said somepin' 'bout men a-never seein'
through nothin'; and when I ast her what she meant,
w'y, she ups and tells me 'at Morris didn't keer
nothin' fer Marthy, ner Marthy fer Morris, and
then went on to tell me that Morris was kind o'
aidgin' up to'rds Annie -- she was next to Marthy,
you know, in p'int of years and experience, but
ever'body allus said 'at Annie was the purtiest one
o' the whole three of 'em. And so when mother
told me 'at the signs p'inted to'rds Annie, w'y, of course, I
hedn't no particular objections to that,
'cause Morris was of good fambly enough it turned
out, and, in fact, was as stirrin' a young feller as
ever I' want fer a son-in-law, and so I hed nothin'
more to say -- ner they wasn't no occasion to say
nothin', 'cause right along about then I begin to
notice 'at Marthy quit comin' home so much, and
Morris kep' a-comin' more.
hisself, 'long about dusk, come out here where
I was feedin', and ast me, all at onct, and in
a straightfor'ard way, ef he couldn't marry
Annie; and, some-way-another, blame' ef it didn't
make me happy as him when I told him yes!
You see that thing proved, pine-blank, 'at he wasn't
a-fishin' round fer Marthy. Well-sir, as luck would
hev it, Marthy got home about a half-hour later,
and I'll give you my word I was never so glad to
see the girl in my life! It was foolish in me, I
reckon, but when I see her drivin' up the lane --
it was purt' nigh dark then, but I could see her
through the open winder from where I was sittin'
at the supper-table, and so I jest quietly excused
myself, p'lite-like, as a feller will, you know, when
they's comp'ny round, and slipped off and met her
jest as she was about to git out to open the barn
gate. 'Hold up, Marthy,' says I; 'set right where
you air; I'll open the gate fer you, and I'll do
anything else fer you in the world 'at you want me to!'
give my consent, and mother's give hern -- the thing's
all settled. Come, jump out and run in and be
happy with the rest of us! ' and I helt out my hands
ag'in, but she didn't 'pear to take no heed. She was kind o'
pale, too, I thought, and swallered a
time er two like as ef she couldn't speak plain.
the girl didn't keel right over in my arms as limber
as a rag! Clean fainted away! Honest! Jest the
excitement, I reckon, o' breakin' it to her so suddent-
like -- 'cause she liked Annie, I've sometimes
thought, better'n even she did her own mother.
Didn't go half so hard with her when her other
sister married. Yes-sir! " said the old man, by way
of sweeping conclusion, as he rose to his feet --
"Marthy's the on'y one of 'em 'at never married --
both the others is gone -- Morris went all through
the army and got back safe and sound -- 's livin' in
Idyho, and doin' fust-rate. Sends me a letter ever'
now and then. Got three little chunks o' grandchildren
out there, and I never laid eyes on one
of 'em. You see, I'm a-gittin' to be quite a middle-
aged man -- in fact, a very middle-aged man, you
might say.
lem-me-see -- mother's be'n dead som'er's in the
neighberhood o' ten years. -- Sence mother died I've
be'n a-gittin' more and more o' MARTHY'S notion --
that is, -- you couldn't ever hire ME to marry nobody!
and them has allus be'n and still is the 'Nest-egg's'
views! Listen! That's her a-callin' fer us now. You must sort
o' overlook the freedom, but I told
Marthy you'd promised to take dinner with us to-
day, and it 'ud never do to disappoint her now.
Come on. " And ah! it would have made the soul
of you either rapturously glad or madly envious to
see how meekly I consented.
till that day; I am always thinking of the crisp and
steaming rolls, ored over with the molten gold
that hinted of the clover-fields, and the bees that
had not yet permitted the honey of the bloom and
the white blood of the stalk to be divorced; I am
thinking that the young and tender pullet we happy
three discussed was a near and dear relative of the
gay patrician rooster that I first caught peering so
inquisitively in at the kitchen door; and I am
always -- always thinking of "The Nest-egg. "
End of title
