The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 12, 19 March 1903, Page 23

The Storyteller

'THE BEST LAID PLAN.'

Mr Dan Shannon had always looked upon love as an affair to be taken up when all others were settled and fv'ell put by — when he could build a house as pood as anybody in Platteville, and have a man to sprinkle the lawn L\\it,e a day at least , when he could have a phaeton for his who to conxe down town and take him home to luncheon , when ho could afford to send his possible children away to school and ha\e on everything that belonged to him the stamp of money and good taste, too. Money and good taste are not always the "same, though Flatteville was still in the stage in which it was inclined to think that they are. Dan thought also that the woman who was to share such distinction m Platteville, the rising city, the county capital, the town that held the political balance of power in his State, should bring along something into the partnership. Itwas a docti me not over-much followed as yet in Platteville. The city still had the western habit of having many men and not so many girls, and the men still felt able to support a wife if they could get her. But even all these other ideas aside. Dan did not want to be tied down to anybody just yet. This was the corner in Dan's brain which he kept caiefully to himself, and the while most of the sweet girls were thinking interestedly about D.i n and his tastes. His law practice as the junior mcnilvi 1 of the firm of Sullivan and Shannon was bound to giow, unless Platteville turned back into a prairie desert And that was not likely, here on the yellow Missouri where the soil gave forth riches if you scratched it, and where a member of Congress was a hereditary institution for the last six terms. A new man would be needed soon, Dan was thinking. And beyond Congress there was the Senate But one thing at a time, and Dan Shannon's clean-cut face, with the .somewhat narrow eyes and too square jaw, took on a look that it did not wear when he was making a social call or a political speech. It was perfectly plain that into this scheme a wife did not fit very easily, and above all not a wife without money or prospects. And then he sighed. He had always kept to the safe side and balanced every attention to any one girl by a nice devotion to some other one. But this once he missed a calculation. just as most of us do once in a while. There was Alice Ward. During the summer, when the yellow earth si/.zled and quivering heat lines hung over the stretches of bare yellow ground, it was so pleasant to go up the hill that rolled away back of the main stieet and sit on a porch m the evenings, with the heavy smell ol freshlysprinkled giounri in the air. and cottonwoods and maplesstirring o\eihead, while the moon came up and gleamed on the curve of the ri\er in the distance The Helmanns wore not lich, but they had an industrious knack of making the sun-seared ground bloom as the rose around their house Mary taught school and Celia was a stenographer They had drilted in and out of Dan Shannon's vision in business and at the church entertainments, until ho knew them pretty well after a fashion One evening early in the summer Dan met Celia with Alice Ward and walked home with them. Somehow he was glad to linger and to call again Little by little ho learned bits of family history There were two of the Ward girls, AliOe a/nd Clara, and they had conic out to Platteville fi om Chicago for a lone; vacation The ITelmann's and Wards had lived in the same small town somewhere in Illinois at one time One of the Ward girls was going to be married soon after they returned. He asked which one, rather indifferently Celia Helmann answered, 'the elder one,' and Dan said, 'Just as it ought to be,' and asked no more It was quite plain to him that Alice was the older. Then he had walked with her, driven with hei , talked and played tennis, and taken a delight in seeing her somewhat peaked face grow round and brown. FTe had, in fact, made wliat any simple-heartod girl might have thought 'love' to Alice. To himself he said, however, that she was engaged, and, of course, it would be too bad not to have anybody to make things pleasant for her in Plattevillo on that account Moreover, some of his other attentions in Platteville were becoming so mai kod that people spoke of them, and the old ladies and those not so old were assuring him that so-and-so was n 'lovely girl,' or nist 'the right one.' or would make a 'good wife,' according to their respective ways of putting it But if anyone spoke of Alice, Dan shiugned his shoulders, 'Well, you know, of course, that she's engaged,' It all seemed very simple and commonplace But when Alice Waid went away after about six weeks, he noticed that she turned very white when he bade her irood-bye in a nice, iornml, don't-niisunderstand-ine soi t of a way. One, polite little note told him that they had arrived "safely, but no answer came to his very cordial reply lleie. now, was a card announcing the marriage Of Cl.ua on Thanksgiving Day Then after all it must have l)i en Alice who was Iree Dan Shannon felt at once a thrill of pleasure and a desire to k.ick himself These emotions are 1 ather hard to leconcile and the eflort is apt to make one irritable. When Father Daly came m about that time to ask Dan to take some part in the fair that was going to be given for St Paul s Church in the week between Christmas and New Year, Dan said he could not, rather shortly. Father Daly looked mildly

surprised and Dan explained that he expected to be out of town. ' H'm,' said Father Daly, ' I'm sorry ; we'll miss you. Do you know what, Dan,' he added, as he was going towards the door, ' 3eems to me it's time for you to settle down and get married. H think ' ' Nobody would have me,' interrupted Dan. ' Ah, don't be telling- me that. I need to earn a few mainage fees to help along the parish,' and he went out chuckling. ' I'm glad I'm a lawyer,' muttered Dan, ' and my business saves me from giving people advice for nothing.' At the fair there would be the usual fringe of timids handing tuound in the corners, and an endless swarm of children and girls with books asking for a vote. Once, in Lhe good old days, they gave you fair chance to win something for your quarter, but now you ' voted ' for the owners of the books, and whoever got the most votes got the article instead of the chance numbers. Then there wero the girls. The Maroney girls would be exuberantly pleasant. Their father had made a good deal of money. The three girls had all been away to school, and had come back ready to give Platteville points on behaviour,, and Dan thought he could do a little of that himself. He had lived a long time in Chicago, and had been abroad for several months, and there were those who said that Dan wore an English air. Many younger sons had drifted into Platteville and its vicinity, however, and it was quite possible to wear your 'trousers turned up when it was raining in London without attracting- attention oven m the hottest Platteville weather. Thereloic, while he sometimes liked the Maroney girls in the summer when they were trying to play tennis and wore easy clothes, they always bothered him in the wmtei when they glided up to him (stiffened and rustling and gave him the high handshake and even higher pitch of voice. When he saw Alice he never knew particularly what she wore nor felt the manner of her doing things except to be altogether at ease with her, and Dan sighed. Perhaps the sigh had in it something of a wish that Alice's father, who died young, it seemed, had h^d <,h9 gcod taste to make as much money as old Maroney dij. Then the door opened and a woman came 'in. Even to Dan's obtuse masculine eyes, it was plain that s>he had tried to the utmost to give her snabby things a taint air of becomingness. She was perhaps 30 or 35 .v ears-old, but very pale and worn-looking. She seated heiself, and after swallowing a few times, said, in a voice husky with timidity, ' I had a letter from you asking mo to call to see ' ' What's the name ? ' ' John Fleming I came to see what it is about,' nml her eyes hung on him expectantly. ' Well, Mrs Fleming, I'm sorry to say we're not looking for a lost heir.' A contraction of pain went over the woman's face. She looked down at her cotton gloves and stroked them nervously. After a moment she said, 'It was just because I was afraid that the business might be unpleasant that T came to see you myself ' ' What's the matter with Mr. Fleming? ' ' He's sick ' Dan Shannon felt as if he had hit her. The quick kindliness of his natuie came up over his irritation. 'I tell \ou, Mrs Fleming, a lawyer gets hard-hearted.' We ha\e to meet all kinds of people. Now tell me all about yourself and we'll see what we can do with Smith and Ilolcomb lor we have here a bill for 75d015. from them against you ' ' Yes, it's 75d015,' said Mrs. Fleming, showing neither astonishment nor emotion, as if long accustomed to the le.-ir of it 'We can't pay it now, no matter what they do to us John is sick in bed ' ' What is the matter with him ? ' ' The doctor says it's bronchitis,' but her eyes seemed shadowed with the fear of something worse. "' We have three childien,' .she went on ' The oldest is a girl, and she's eight now, and then the next is six. My husband and they could manage alone, but the baby's too little. Tie isn't quite three, but he's a good little fellow.' She looked at him beseechingly. ' I've often heard you were a v erv good and kind man. I heard it from — ' she stoplied, ' several people,' she went on, then ' that you are n good man. Now, if I could have the baby taken care of for the winter 1 could go to work myself. I used to be a stenographer, and I could earn some money and m.i\ be pay this bill It's the only way ' Dan looked at her with a perfectly non-committal expicssion He did not quite like the possible connections between this gieat reputation for kindness and the caro of a good little boy of three. Flattering as was the implication, he was ready to disclaim so much virtue and suggest that perhaps it was some other Dan Shannon of whom she had heard But the woman's" annealing eyes held him silent in snite of his returning bad humor. ' Then 1 was thinking,' she went on again, ' that business would lake you east, and you might be willing to take the little fellow along He's "-pod and he won't cost \ on anything extra, except what little I could pay, but 1 (ouldn't afford to take him myself now. Once in (ilenelhn my aunt would keep him for the winter. Or niav be you could find some one who wwouldw r ould take him. Even it' von were not going all the way,' she went on with the fluency of one who has thought it all over and - ovei.' v you were only going home on a visit, as far as Rochelle, you could send the little fellow the rest of the way alone I don't think he'd bo afraid to go alone. But you'd have to take a day train, as the night express does not stop at Glencllyn. Ma;vbe you wouldn't like that part.' Dan was persistently silent.

' It's the only way,' the woman began again ' It would give me a chance to work and get some of tho worry off of John's mind and get him the medicine and food he needs. I'm sure he would be better by spring ' She looked at Dan with a look in which there was a wistful hope and an unutterable devotion. Dan suddenly passed his hands over his eves and swung his chair around away from her. 'So that's it, is it?' The baby partly and John the lest. The window and its outlook were in the i ange ot his vision now, and across tho low old houses on the other side of the street, he could see the bare, swaying tops of tho trees where tho Helmanns lived and he had sat and talked to Alice The woman's <>\es made him think of Alice Something like that " look seemed to bo in Alice's eyes, too, when she turned to him at times, only less wistful and anxious. ' Olencllyn is near Chicago, isn't it ? ' he asked, suddenly. ' Yes,' said Mrs. Fleming. And Dan remembered that ho had told Father Daly that he was going to be out of town, and what was the use of being an attorney of a railroad if you couldn't use their passes once in a whilo to suit yourself. Besides, his mother would bo glad to see him, though probably if she knew he were coming she would have two or three girls of her own particular choice to thrust at him as often as possible. She did not need to know he was coming until he got there That was one way of doing things. And then he did not know but that if he talked with Sulli\an. they would find that there were several things that needed attention in Chicago. Ho would go to Kochello, let the little lellow go on and get his Christmas dinner, and then ho might go on to Chicago It would be pleasant to see Alice and maybe they would both find each othei tichou. in the winter days, and that it was only tho pleasant summer weather — He drummed on the edge of tho table. ' I think 1 can manage around about the day beloio Christmas Bring him in to see me srmie day so we can be acquainted before we start out.' He rose and showed Mrs. Fleming out. STie, for her part, said to herself, ' I wonder if I should have told him how I came to know so much about him.' Baby Vinnie, carefully dressed by his mother, full of the excitement of going to ride on the ' choo-choo ' car with a supplies of cookies and playthings, was m excellent humor. Dan, however, was conscious ot having risen at six o'clock, that there was no pailor-car on the train, and that it was the slowest ot locals, and that the morning was raw. The conductor fixed a double seat for them and Vinnie played and talked to him and to the brak.oman about his 'man-man,' as he called the stuffed cotton-boy, and the ' bowwow,' his stufled dog until it was time to stop somewhere at a wayside station foi dinner Vinnie was hai dly well started eating when it was time to go back to the train, so he spent a good while aiterwards eating cookies But whui this pleasure was oxer, Vinnie was at the end ol his lesouices and he sat looking wistfully at Dan Dan's e\ < s had strayed fi oni his book, and wore absently fixed on the swiftly-passing fields of dry com stalks standing up. husked and empty, where they had grown, now tiampled into the baie ground by the cattle tinned Jooso m them The broad view was desolate as death No theie was .i red-hooded girl .slipping along on tho patches of ice and a boy with trousers wobbling loosely ov o,r his shoe-tops coming along towards the farmhouse with a baskit ot corncobs between them. They btaied at the tram and the boy waved a nnttcned hand clumsily It was .ill so uncooth and joyless seeming that Dan wondeted what it was good for' in tho end To make height tor the iailloads. Still his own people had staited, not unlike this, some .'SO years before, and made enough to send the boys to school' and to buy a house in Kochello Ev en as they wero being swept irom view he saw that animation hari suddenly come into the sluggish figures of tho children They were jumping up and down and waving their hands Then the waggon-road loading to the fai ni-hou>o came- bofoio the window. The farmoi apat het icallv humped in his seat, not oven turning Ins head to look at the train, straightened up and began to wave too. evidently at tho children In the bottom ol hi-* waggon, pooping ' fi om beneath concealing covers was a Ohiistmas tree Something from Bums ran disconnectedly through Dan's mind 'To make a happy Inesidi- cluno for weans and wife' — 'the true pathos and sublime of human life ' Dan laughed, half sceptically But Vinnio mistook the smile for pleasure, and put out a little hand confidingly and said, 'Tell, Vinnie a bawe doi dy '' ' ' What 9 ' said Dan. ' A bawe doi dy ? ' ' A boar st oi v Vinnie nodded smiling in anticipation The only bear stoiy that would come into Dans mind about that time was tho one of the huntei who mot tho bear when he hadn't his gun wi< h him and then prayed 'Oh, lend, 3 haven't tioubled von foi lL long time Help mo tins time if von can But if \ou can't don't help the- bear and you'll see. the (K.inest light vow saw m a long 1 line ' Somehow this did not suggest itself to Dan as a good bear story for Vinnie, and when ho got as l.v as the man pr.ived for help, Dan stoppod and \ miied asked what then Dan concluded rather abruptly that then the bear fell over and bumped hi.s head Vinnio sat with laige and wondei-widc eyes trying to compiohond tho occuirence Then his arm stole around Dan's nock, and bo said undismayed, ■ Tell Vinnio a pmcv dordv r > ' V>m shook his head ' A titty-tat dordy ? Dan shook his

head again. ' A water-baby dordy ? ' But Dan's head was singularly empty of even a suggestion of a story that Vuinie would like, and some of the stories that did come into his mind made him feel ashamed of himself before the child Vinnie the while was giving his cheek caressing, coaxing little pinches after the way of a child who has been only with those who loved it and let it love them. Dan felt a thrill of delightful gentleness go through him at tho little one's touches and he felt he must tell the child something. He began at random : ' Onco there was a little boy ' Wath he a dood ittie boy ? ' asked Vinnie. Dan had an inspiration in answer. Surely he could tull ihe child a sioiy oi Christmas, and Vinnie li&tened and listened, and at last the little body grew limp and the child was, a bleep. Dan sat foi t\\ o inoital hours without stirring, for fear of waking him. He dared not oven wad. He just sat staring into the darkening world and into the shadows where summer scenes in which were Alice and he jdanced into \isions of possible houses, and sites of houses, and furnishings. ' I'm makinc at least 1500 dollars a year clear, and most people who make that much m Platteville are saving money on it.' When the time for supper came he did not want to take the little fellow into the cold again for half a meal. So he left him with an anxious old lady and brought in a bowl of warm milk and bread. He would not let the old lady gi\e it to him, however, though she pleaded children and grandchildren, but fed him himself carefully and precariously but proudly. In about an hour it woulo\ be time for him to get off if he were going to Rochelle, and after that Vinnie would have an hour longer to ride. The old lady declared sho would take peisonal care and the conductor vouched that hi* would be responsible foi his safe delivery at Glenellyn He knew people at Glenellyn himself. So Dan said to Vinnie, ' After a while Uncle Dan is going to leave you on the car for a while all by yourself and the nice lady Will you bo afraid ? ' ' Vinnie ithn't fwaid,' and he patted Dan's head, ' but Vinnie ikes Unkio Dan on de cah ' 'Oh, that's the way, is it?' thought Dan. 'He isn't afraid, but he hkes Uncle Dan,' and somehow it flattered him vastly Vinnie was a plucky little chap and he ought to have the kind of company he preferred, to be sine Dan consulted the conductor once more and found thai there was a local back .some time in tho morning about seven o'clock 'They don't expect me for a certainty at any particular tune at homo. I might as well go on ' Then ho took up Vinnio once more, and that young lad soon slept tho sleep of the just and of those who have their will Then the bi akenian called out ' Clonellyn,' Dan slipnod the sleepy child into his coat with the help of the benevolent old lady, took him on his arm and got off on tho little platform, where fantastic shadows whipped up and down in tho flickering lie h t of tho sfngle lantern. Han stood theie hositntinply. then ho sot down tho little fellow and leading bun by tho band .started across towaids tho tmv waiting room ' Hero ho is,' said a voice and then thoie was a yapping little 'Oh ' and Dan had to let go ol \ mine's hand and was saying 'Alice' and closed his two hands across hers, vUule sho was looking up at him with eves m which there was an unspeakable delight Incohei enth . in fits and starts interrupted by introductions m tho waiting-room. Dan learned that Alice was hero tor Christmas Tho aunt, with whom she had lived a pood pait of the time after her father died, lived hoi o l\frs Fleming was a second cousin to this aunt Tho 7 r lemmgs had had much misfortune in tho last ve.u Yes they knew that ho was going to biing Vinnie, but they did not know that he was coming all the wav ' Neither did I,' laughed Dan Then ho asked about a hotel, but Alice said that they could not let him go to a hotel Dan agreed in tho exuberance of a delight he did not care to repress now He would tro back on the morning tiam and bo in tune enough to meet and get tired of the girls his mother would have at tho house. And Alice pointed out s 'that ho could not go to church if he took tho morning tram, and that there was a late afternoon i i iii n which stoppod on signal And so Dan agreed to w ait Vinnio was going to stay with tho Cummings, other cousins of Alice, and first cousins of Mrs Fleming. Annie Cunimings, Tom, Vinnio and tho valise were packed into tho capacious iunip-se<it and it fell to Alice and Dan to w alk Tho still calm an. the luminous sky, the stars, the arching liees, the cuspy snow, tho little houses with their cosy enclosines, and, above all, tho touch of Alice's hand upon his arm, were so full of mysterious charm after 1 h<> bairen .stiotchos of lonely earth on which Dan had looked in Iho morning that ho was in a mood that was almost exaltation They slopped at the Cumnnnps' ,md had somo hot lea and cakes Vinnio, wide awake once nioic m tho delight ot a brilliant Christmas tive (aim 1 o\ or to Tnkie Dan' with o 'horn full of knu knacks for Clnistmas, and a reluctant pood-night and a kiss Tom Cimmnngs had told Alice's aunt of the guest to come and tho spare room had a roaring fire in an old-iashioned stove that looked like a church door with its gahle>- and points The whole side of it seemed to open out like a fireplace, and Dan sat and watched tho flames cieep around tho crackling wood The room was f,-osh with a cot lain immaculate, convent-like freshness, which be had almost forgotten in the dust and dmgm^ss of hotels and boardino-hous< s It was like a dream that ho should lie under the same roof with Alice. JTow little did he think it in the morning ? He was to

be called to go to five o'clock Mass with her and her cousins, and it was late now. But no matter. He leaned back in a luxury of reveries. Dan had not been over-religious. Self-reliant and pushing as he was, tho blows of his life had not yet been of the kind that force a man txo have a hope and a faith outside of himself and his fellow-creatures. Still it seemed even to him that the marvel of the day's ending must mean more than just a trick of chance. At home he had known an anxious and ambitious devotion from his parents, but none of that quiet content and gentle simplicity of pleasure which seemed to mark Alice and her people. May be it might be a good gift to take on a life journey, a more comfortable one than many others. He - looked a,t the clock and saw that it was nearly twelve. At fourthirty hu uiubt got up. It was well to got to bed for a little while When ho lay down fantastic figures came up and looked at him and passed away again, people he had seen and others he had not seen, and every little while Alice's dark eyes seemed to obscure the fleeting faces. Dan had gotten into such a fine flow of spirits that they ceased to flow at once when he was ready. Then the head of Dante in a book he had read with Alice came into his mind and he tried to recall the lines under it. At last some of it came, 'how hard it is to climb another's stair.' 'Indeed it is,' whispered Dan 'on Christmas, too, and it will not be so next year,' and he smiled happily and drifted in blessed unconsciousness. How do the things that pass come upon us ? We plan, we think, and then what does happen seems to have shaped itself as the outcome of powers we ne\er thought in us, or tried not to think in us. When Dan was coming bacA fiom chinch with the first silver streak showing faintly in the East and Alice clinging to him in the darkness of the .slippeiy and unlighted street, he found himselt talking of Pkitteville and fifteen hundred a year. Alice seemed to agree Dan did not notice that during this argument the Cummingses and nearly everybody else had gotten fai ahead of them lie and Alice slipped into the house and huddled around the stove into the sitting room, waiting to be called for breakfast Dan was helping Alice off with her coat and talking but -little, so that Aunt Fllon \wis not quite sure whether they were in or not, and she opened the sitting-room door to look m Pan was holding Alices hands. Aunt Ellen gasped in utter bewildei inent and Alice tried to withdraw her hands, but Pan held them fast ' Merry Christmas, Aunt Ellen It's all right,' he said, 'if you're willing to have me for a nephew ' ' God bless us ! ' said Aunt Ellen. ' Come and have. your breakfast anyway befene it's cold." — ' Donahoe's Magazine.'