The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 8 September 1910, Page 1427

The Storyteller

THE REVOLT OF JOEL ~ /There you've set that pail on the dresser shelf again right where, I've told you not to more than a thousand times! Put it on the floor, where it belongs. Not there; over on the wood-box, •so you'll have room to spread a newspaper down first. Now just look behind you! Where did you + get all that mud? I don't see, unless you went and hunted for it, so you could traipse through it and bring mu ere to make me more work wiping it up after you V tI? W ?T pad , for breath, and the man-patient Joel . Bramhall—marched obediently over to the spot designated and placed the pail as directed. He said no word until he saw his wife put on her glasses and with a damp cloth in her hand go peering carefully along the way he had come. k S . ' P ad J x ' t you better get the magnifying glass?' he said, jocosely, + for ear i. you may miss a grain of it, Nancy 0 Dirt that has to be hunted for at such close range and with specs on, to is hardly worth making such a fuss about, is it P . ' His wife looked at him reproachfully. rill ' J* doesn't make any difference whether it's much or little, she retorted. 'You're bound to bring in just so much, anyway, and there's more than a dozen pieces of straw on the back of your coat now.' xi T i ie ]\ usba ,n d reached behind him, and brushed away the offending bits of straw. His irate spouse broke forth afresh: 'I do declare, Joel Bramhall! Why on earth couldn't you go out doors and brush off your dirt? Now I've got that to clean up after you. , You ought to go and live in the hogpen; you'd be happy there.' m ' I'm not sure but I should, .Nancy. I get kind of tired hearing you fret so much. Sometimes I'm almost sorry I had the kitchen floor painted. You weren't quite so particular before that, seems to me. Anyway, the dirt didn't show so plain.' 'There now! ■ Isn't that just like a man! Perhaps it didnt show so plain, but 'twas there all the same, and that's just what you like, I suppose.' Mrs. Bramhall looked at Joel for an instant, then turned and walked into the pantry, where she rattled the pans in what seemed to him a very unnecessary way. She was not an ill-tempered woman, and Joel knew that she would have taken up the cudgels in his defence most vigorously had anyone else ventured to find a fault with him; but his easy ways jarred upon her so that she had gradually fallen into the habit of berating him for every offence against her wax-like neatness. They were middle-aged people now, and somehow her sharp words seemed to hurt the husband more than in the days when he was young, and he could turn them off with a laugh and a caress. One day there arrived a summons from their married daughter, twenty miles away, for 'mother 'to come and take charge of the household and the new baby for a few weeks. Mrs. Bramhall packed her grip and departed at once. ' Now, Joel,' she said, as she saw the stage appearing in the distance, 'don't forget to put a newspaper down on the floor when you feed the cat, and here's the new mop behind the door. I don't expect you'll ever think to use it, though. The pies are on the hanging shelf down the cellar, the cookies are in the second cake box, and you'll find the doughnuts in a stone jar in the cellarway. Such a mess of dishes as I shall have to wash when I get back! You'll be happy for at least a week, and maybe longer, Joel, for you can have all the dirt you want, and I'll expect you'll take full advantage of your privileges.' She climbed into the stage, which was now at the door, and as it rolled out of the yard, she thrust her head from the window, with the parting injunction, Now, don't come in out of the ploughed ground on to my clean bedroom carpet.' As the stage disappeared over the hill, Joe Bramhall gave vent to a low chuckle. ' It's the first time I ever was glad to see you go,' he said, 'and it'll probably be the last, but I'm going to work this very minute, and Nancy, you shall see something that will delight your blessed old perhaps,' he added, with a peculiar intonation on the last word. During the next few days he hammered and planned and sawed diligently, until at last one night he drew along breath of delight, and said gleefully, There, now, she can come back any time she's a mind to, and I'll be mighty glad to see her, 'too.' When the stage once more rolled up to the door, and Nancy Bramhall alighted, there were no signs of life about the house. r . She pushed open the door, and . stood there in openmouthed wonder at the sight which met her view. ■ ' The kitchen floor was as spotless as-it had been on the day of her departure. Not a dish awaited the cleansing process; not a speck of ashes marred the surface of the kitchen stove. She opened the bedroom door, and was still further bewildered at finding that the bed had not been disturbed. .

+v I? }\ ' possible he got lonesome and went 'to some oi the neighbors to board?' she muttered, as she went down the cellar stairs. ' But an examination of the doughnut jar and the cellar •+l P roved . beyond a doubt that Joel had not boarded with the neighbors, neither had her absence and his consequent loneliness materially affected his appetite, for the doughnut jar was empty, and only half a pie remained from the seven which she had left for his consumption. She bustled about the kitchen, got out the breadboard, and prepared supper, wondering meanwhile at the. unexpected state of affairs. ' Then she waited. The clock struck six before she decided, to blow the horn with which she had been accustomed to summon her husband from the field. - She blew a long, shrill blast, and was rewarded a few moments ' thereafter by hearing his step at the back door —then silence. After a few moments of impatient waiting she .opened the door with a jerk, and found him confronting her with his usual cheerful smile. 'l'm glad you've come, Nancy,' he .said cordially. It's been powerful lonesome since you've been gone.' ' Well, I'm glad to get back again, too. Your supper's all ready.' But he made no movement toward coming in. _ Instead, he held out a tiny pan, which hung by his side. 'You can put my supper in here, Nancy,' he said. ' Joel" Bramhall, are you crazy ?' exclaimed his wife. ' I shan't do any such thing. Why don't you come in and eat, and not stand there like a tramp?' ' Nancy, I've made an.awful sight of work and trouble with my careless ways, and I've thought about it for a good while; so while you were gone I fixed things so you won't have me to wait on so much. You just give me my supper here, and you won't have any dirt or mud or straws to clean up after me if I don't come in.' Mrs. Bramhall sat weakly down in a chair and fanned herself with her apron. ' Twon't hurt me now any more than it ever did to clean up after you,' she said in a subdued kind of way. Reluctantly she took the pan which he held out, and stepping to the table, filled it generously with the best of everything. Then, without another word, she handed it to him, and watched him as he walked away with ,- t, through the yard, across the lane, and into the orchard, where he finally disappeared from view. She sat down to the table and tried to eat, but her appetite was gone. For almost thirty years her husband had sat opposite to her at the little table, and now—where was he? She could not eat alone; she must know how Joel was faring. So, snatching her sunbonnet from its accustomed nail, she was soon following in his wake. As she reached the orchard the gleam of new shingles attracted her attention, and, turning her steps thither, she saw that a small building had been erected, while just inside the open door sat her husband, serenely eating his supper from the pan. Some sudden movement of hers drew his notice. Why, Nancy,' he said genially, 'you finished your supper quick, didn't you ? Come in and see how cozy and comfortable I am. Sit down here and have some more. I don't believe you've had half enough.' He drew up a chair opposite the one he had just vacated. Mechanically she sank into it and gazed about her with dismay. "Suddenly her eyes fell on a sack of straw. As he noted the start she gave, he said complacently: 'Looking at my bed ? . You've no idea what a comfortable bed that is.' . , . She listened to him quietly while he set forth the advantages of his new place of abode, but when he raised the sack and disclosed the frame which supported it, she rose, and coming close to the corner where it stood, peered into it curiously. ~,.,, , .- a . i Then starting back with a horrified expression, she exclaimed in shocked tones: 'Why, Joel Bramhall, it it's—a trough!' His face beamed with delight. ' 'That's it, Nancy/ he said jubilantly. ' You've hit it, and it's the most comfortable thing I've ever slept in, too/ ' You know I began this for a hog-pen, he went on. 'and it looked so cosy-that I used to bring the potatoes out here to sprout 'em, and do lots of other little chores that always made a litter in the house for you to clean ud And then I began to think about staying here all the time, and. all of a sudden I happened to think what you'd always said about my being happy if I could only In and live in a" hog-pen, and I burst right out laughing. I made up my mini that I'd do it, and I built that big trough so's to make it seem like a real hog-pen, long si d begun it for that; and you can't think how much comfort 1 only yesterday I spilt some water on the floor, and before I thought, that guilty feeling came over me, and I jumped for the mop to wipe it up Nancy,' and here h 8 voice took on an earnest tone that struck to her heart, ' vou can't ever know what a relief it was when I came to mv senses and remembered that there wasn't any mop or dust pan or anything else to worry me every minute I euess you're right. Nancy, I guess I'm happier here than anvwhere else It's comfort such as I never dreamed of taking Now you come back here and sit down, or your SUPP Ob?diently to she C sat* down and mechanically she swallowed her tea, but she could not eat, and she soon rose from the table. A

-‘I guess I’ll go now, Joel,’ she faltered, ‘I want to —to—do some planning,’ she added, as she moved toward the door. ' ‘ Now, don’t go to doing anything that belongs to me to do!’ he . called after her. ‘l’ll be up party soon and do everything as I always have, and if you need me for anything in particular just blow the horn and I’ll come/ Mrs. Bramhall rose in the “morning more weary than when she had gone to bed, and set about getting breakfast in a half-hearted way. Then she said energetically: ‘ I’ll do it! I could see last night that he doesn’t really enjoy eating alone, however he may enjoy the rest of it, trough and all.’ Getting down the old-fashioned waiter, she piled it with dishes and breakfast for two, and started out with a somewhat lighter heart. Joel met her at the orchard bars and took the waiter from her, saying, ‘ I don’t want you to do this, Nancy. I’m trying to save you work, instead of making you more, lou just fix up the victuals, and I’ll come up after them as regularly as the cat and the hens do, and I won’t—’ But she stopped him. ‘ I’m not going to eat my meals alone, Joel Bramhall, whatever you do. You may live in a hog-pen, if you want to, and sleep in a trough, but you shan’t eat in one, and that’s what it’ll come to sooner or later if I don’t come and eat with you. You needn’t look so anxious; I haven’t any dust-pan with me. And I shan’t interfere with anything but your eating. I guess you’ll be glad enough to have me to do that if you’d own up to the truth.’ They trudged along together, and at last sat down to the bare pine table, where they both made a comfortable meal. Two weeks passed. Joel ploughed and planted, brought wood and kindlings and did his usual chores as he had always done, appearing at meal times with unfailing regularity; and with regularity equally unfailing Nancy accompanied him back and remained to share the meal with him. As she sat by the open window one afternoon she was startled by the apparition of a hatless and much dishevelled boy, who ran panting up the walk, and without any preliminaries, cried: ‘ You’d better get a lounge or something ready, Mis’ _ Bramhall ! The boss got scared and hove Mr. Bramhall ' out, an’ he’s all stove up. They’re bringing him home, down the road a piece.’ For a moment everything seemed blurred and unsteady; then the thought came, ‘ I’ve got to bear it. There’s nobody but me to do for him, and I mustn’t give out!’ and she went to work with a will. For many days Joel lay in a half-unconscious state, but at last he began to rally, and a great weight seemed to be taken from his wife’s heart, . She had suffered keen agony from the thought that he might die and never know how bitterly she repented her past harshness, for she had thought to some purpose during all these lonely weeks. Once, as his trembling hand refused to do his bidding, and a spoonful of medicine was spilled on the white spread, he glanced up quickly, with the old guilty, apologetic look upon his face; but she took no notice, and went on wiping up the stain without a word. Another time, after he could sit up in bed, a sudden movement overturned a bottle of liniment, and it went crashing to the floor. Not a word said his wife. After carrying out the pieces of glass in the dust-pan, she returned with her face still as placid as if nothing had happened.It was a wonderful change, and as he lay there, gazing through the open window, it seemed to him that he could ask nothing more. Life was fullcompleteif only Nancy would continue in this pleasant mood. Two weeks passed, and Joel, delighted as a little child at his returning strength, took a stout cane and, started on his first walk about the place since his accident. ‘ I don’t know,’ he muttered, ‘ as I ought to have been quite so set about staying there, but ’ But what was this? He had reached the door of the ‘ cozy ’ building in the orchard, and he rubbed his eyes in bewilderment. Then he stepped inside and looked once more. Then he leaned weakly against the door-frame and laughed. Two new half-partitions had been erected, and in one division rolled and. grunted his brood sow with her brandnew litter of porkersthirteen in allwhile in the other were the three hogs which had hitherto been kept in the old pen. He sat down on the steps of the new building and ruminated, while the pigs behind him grunted and squealed their contentment in his unheeding ears. At last he rose and took a comprehensive look around him. ‘Well, Nancy,’ he said slowly, ‘you’ve got the best of me, after all, and-he hesitated an instant, and then burst forth boyishly ‘l’m glad of it! Yes, I ami’ To the waiting woman behind the_ pantry blinds it seemed as if he were gone a long, long time, and her hand trembled with some strong emotion as she held > aside the curtain at one corner, but when he stepped inside 'the door she was stirring up cookies at the # kitchen _ dresser, with her face as serene as if no conflicting emotions had ever found lodgment in her heart. He looked about the cheerful kitchen a moment. Then in a matter-of-fact tone which under the circumstances would have been amusing had there been anyone beside

be sadj ‘Seems to me the pigs are a little the best-looking we’ve ever had.’ trackJd he fn' fl b S 6 he j kusbund, rather nervously. I’ve where I 1 a V Ud fe m somewhere. I don’t see wnere 1 got it, though. Where’s the dust-pan? I’ll ’ N a N Sr d ab ° ut ! tin g the dust-pan, Joel,’ said noon y * l 1 got ,. to wash the floor this afterma i t yflow, and a, little dirt more or less -on it doesn’t that +W? 6 CU P, md-m-m-m ’ and Joel Bramhall knew ntV&fSS ,, " e!IK “ 0f tleir £uture haMi -