CHAPTER IX
WHEREIN ELNORA DISCOVERS A VIOLIN, AND BILLY DISCIPLINES MARGARET
Elnora missed the little figure at the bridge the following morning.
She slowly walked up the street and turned in at the wide entrance
to the school grounds. She scarcely could comprehend that only a
week ago she had gone there friendless, alone, and so sick at heart
that she was physically ill. To-day she had decent clothing, books,
friends, and her mind was at ease to work on her studies.
As she approached home that night the girl paused in amazement.
Her mother had company, and she was laughing. Elnora entered the
kitchen softly and peeped into the sitting-room. Mrs. Comstock sat
in her chair holding a book and every few seconds a soft chuckle
broke into a real laugh. Mark Twain was doing his work; while Mrs.
Comstock was not lacking in a sense of humour. Elnora entered the
room before her mother saw her. Mrs. Comstock looked up with flushed
face.
"Where did you get this?" she demanded.
"I bought it," said Elnora.
"Bought it! With all the taxes due!"
"I paid for it out of my Indian money, mother," said Elnora.
"I couldn't bear to spend so much on myself and nothing at
all on you. I was afraid to buy the dress I should have liked to,
and I thought the book would be company, while I was gone. I haven't
read it, but I do hope it's good."
"Good! It's the biggest piece of foolishness I have read in
all my life. I've laughed all day, ever since I found it. I had
a notion to go out and read some of it to the cows and see if they
wouldn't laugh."
"If it made you laugh, it's a wise book," said Elnora.
"Wise!" cried Mrs. Comstock. "You can stake your
life it's a wise book. It takes the smartest man there is to do
this kind of fooling," and she began laughing again.
Elnora, highly satisfied with her purchase, went to her room and
put on her working clothes. Thereafter she made a point of bringing
a book that she thought would interest her mother, from the library
every week, and leaving it on the sitting-room table. Each night
she carried home at least two school books and studied until she
had mastered the points of her lessons. She did her share of the
work faithfully, and every available minute she was in the fields
searching for cocoons, for the moths promised to become her largest
source of income.
She gathered baskets of nests, flowers, mosses, insects, and all
sorts of natural history specimens and sold them to the grade teachers.
At first she tried to tell these instructors what to teach their
pupils about the specimens; but recognizing how much more she knew
than they, one after another begged her to study at home, and use
her spare hours in school to exhibit and explain nature subjects
to their pupils. Elnora loved the work, and she needed the money,
for every few days some matter of expense arose that she had not
expected.
From the first week she had been received and invited with the crowd
of girls in her class, and it was their custom in passing through
the business part of the city to stop at the confectioners' and
take turns in treating to expensive candies, ice cream sodas, hot
chocolate, or whatever they fancied. When first Elnora was asked
she accepted without understanding. The second time she went because
she seldom had tasted these things, and they were so delicious she
could not resist. After that she went because she knew all about
it, and had decided to go.
She had spent half an hour on the log beside the trail in deep thought
and had arrived at her conclusions. She worked harder than usual
for the next week, but she seemed to thrive on work. It was October
and the red leaves were falling when her first time came to treat.
As the crowd flocked down the broad walk that night Elnora called,
"Girls, it's my treat to-night! Come on!"
She led the way through the city to the grocery they patronized
when they had a small spread, and entering came out with a basket,
which she carried to the bridge on her home road. There she arranged
the girls in two rows on the cement abutments and opening her basket
she gravely offered each girl an exquisite little basket of bark,
lined with red leaves, in one end of which nestled a juicy big red
apple and in the other a spicy doughnut not an hour from Margaret
Sinton's frying basket.
Another time she offered big balls of popped corn stuck together
with maple sugar, and liberally sprinkled with beechnut kernels.
Again it was hickory-nut kernels glazed with sugar, another time
maple candy, and once a basket of warm pumpkin pies. She never made
any apology, or offered any excuse. She simply gave what she could
afford, and the change was as welcome to those city girls accustomed
to sodas and French candy, as were these same things to Elnora surfeited
on popcorn and pie. In her room was a little slip containing a record
of the number of weeks in the school year, the times it would be
her turn to treat and the dates on which such occasions would fall,
with a number of suggestions beside each. Once the girls almost
fought over a basket lined with yellow leaves, and filled with fat,
very ripe red haws. In late October there was a riot over one which
was lined with red leaves and contained big fragrant pawpaws frost-bitten
to a perfect degree. Then hazel nuts were ripe, and once they served.
One day Elnora at her wits' end, explained to her mother that the
girls had given her things and she wanted to treat them. Mrs. Comstock,
with characteristic stubbornness, had said she would leave a basket
at the grocery for her, but firmly declined to say what would be
in it. All day Elnora struggled to keep her mind on her books. For
hours she wavered in tense uncertainty. What would her mother do?
Should she take the girls to the confectioner's that night or risk
the basket? Mrs. Comstock could make delicious things to eat, but
would she?
As they left the building Elnora made a final rapid mental calculation.
She could not see her way clear to a decent treat for ten people
for less than two dollars and if the basket proved to be nice, then
the money would be wasted. She decided to risk it. As they went
to the bridge the girls were betting on what the treat would be,
and crowding near Elnora like spoiled small children. Elnora set
down the basket.
"Girls," she said, "I don't know what this is myself,
so all of us are going to be surprised. Here goes!"
She lifted the cover and perfumes from the land of spices rolled
up. In one end of the basket lay ten enormous sugar cakes the tops
of which had been liberally dotted with circles cut from stick candy.
The candy had melted in baking and made small transparent wells
of waxy sweetness and in the centre of each cake was a fat turtle
made from a raisin with cloves for head and feet. The remainder
of the basket was filled with big spiced pears that could be held
by their stems while they were eaten. The girls shrieked and attacked
the cookies, and of all the treats Elnora offered perhaps none was
quite so long remembered as that.
When Elnora took her basket, placed her books in it, and started
home, all the girls went with her as far as the fence where she
crossed the field to the swamp. At parting they kissed her good-bye.
Elnora was a happy girl as she hurried home to thank her mother.
She was happy over her books that night, and happy all the way to
school the following morning.
When the music swelled from the orchestra her heart almost broke
with throbbing joy. For music always had affected her strangely,
and since she had been comfortable enough in her surroundings to
notice things, she had listened to every note to find what it was
that literally hurt her heart, and at last she knew. It was the
talking of the violins. They were human voices, and they spoke a
language Elnora understood. It seemed to her that she must climb
up on the stage, take the instruments from the fingers of the players
and make them speak what was in her heart.
That night she said to her mother, "I am perfectly crazy for
a violin. I am sure I could play one, sure as I live. Did any one----"
Elnora never completed that sentence.
"Hush!" thundered Mrs. Comstock. "Be quiet! Never
mention those things before me again--never as long as you live!
I loathe them! They are a snare of the very devil himself! They
were made to lure men and women from their homes and their honour.
If ever I see you with one in your fingers I will smash it in pieces."
Naturally Elnora hushed, but she thought of nothing else after she
had finished her lessons. At last there came a day when for some
reason the leader of the orchestra left his violin on the grand
piano. That morning Elnora made her first mistake in algebra. At
noon, as soon as the building was empty, she slipped into the auditorium,
found the side door which led to the stage, and going through the
musicians' entrance she took the violin. She carried it back into
the little side room where the orchestra assembled, closed all the
doors, opened the case and lifted out the instrument.
She laid it on her breast, dropped her chin on it and drew the bow
softly across the strings. One after another she tested the open
notes. Gradually her stroke ceased to tremble and she drew the bow
firmly. Then her fingers began to fall and softly, slowly she searched
up and down those strings for sounds she knew. Standing in the middle
of the floor, she tried over and over. It seemed scarcely a minute
before the hall was filled with the sound of hurrying feet, and
she was forced to put away the violin and go to her classes. The
next day she prayed that the violin would be left again, but her
petition was not answered. That night when she returned from the
school she made an excuse to go down to see Billy. He was engaged
in hulling walnuts by driving them through holes in a board. His
hands were protected by a pair of Margaret's old gloves, but he
had speckled his face generously. He appeared well, and greeted
Elnora hilariously.
"Me an' the squirrels are laying up our winter stores,"
he shouted. "Cos the cold is coming, an' the snow an' if we
have any nuts we have to fix 'em now. But I'm ahead, cos Uncle Wesley
made me this board, and I can hull a big pile while the old squirrel
does only ist one with his teeth."
Elnora picked him up and kissed him. "Billy, are you happy?"
she asked.
"Yes, and so's Snap," answered Billy. "You ought
to see him make the dirt fly when he gets after a chipmunk. I bet
you he could dig up pa, if anybody wanted him to."
"Billy!" gasped Margaret as she came out to them.
"Well, me and Snap don't want him up, and I bet you Jimmy and
Belle don't, either. I ain't been twisty inside once since I been
here, and I don't want to go away, and Snap don't, either. He told
me so."
"Billy! That is not true. Dogs can't talk," cautioned
Margaret.
"Then what makes you open the door when he asks you to?"
demanded Billy.
"Scratching and whining isn't talking."
"Anyway, it's the best Snap can talk, and you get up and do
things he wants done. Chipmunks can talk too. You ought to hear
them damn things holler when Snap gets them!"
"Billy! When you want a cooky for supper and I don't give it
to you it is because you said a wrong word."
"Well, for----" Billy clapped his hand over his mouth
and stained his face in swipes. "Well, for--anything! Did I
go an' forget again! The cookies will get all hard, won't they?
I bet you ten dollars I don't say that any more."
He espied Wesley and ran to show him a walnut too big to go through
the holes, and Elnora and Margaret entered the house.
They talked of many things for a time and then Elnora said suddenly:
"Aunt Margaret, I like music."
"I've noticed that in you all your life," answered Margaret.
"If dogs can't talk, I can make a violin talk," announced
Elnora, and then in amazement watched the face of Margaret Sinton
grow pale.
"A violin!" she wavered. "Where did you get a violin?"
"They fairly seemed to speak to me in the orchestra. One day
the conductor left his in the auditorium, and I took it, and Aunt
Margaret, I can make it do the wind in the swamp, the birds, and
the animals. I can make any sound I ever heard on it. If I had a
chance to practise a little, I could make it do the orchestra music,
too. I don't know how I know, but I do."
"Did--did you ever mention it to your mother?" faltered
Margaret.
"Yes, and she seems prejudiced against them. But oh, Aunt Margaret,
I never felt so about anything, not even going to school. I just
feel as if I'd die if I didn't have one. I could keep it at school,
and practise at noon a whole hour. Soon they'd ask me to play in
the orchestra. I could keep it in the case and practise in the woods
in summer. You'd let me play over here Sunday. Oh, Aunt Margaret,
what does one cost? Would it be wicked for me to take of my money,
and buy a very cheap one? I could play on the least expensive one
made."
"Oh, no you couldn't! A cheap machine makes cheap music. You
got to have a fine fiddle to make it sing. But there's no sense
in your buying one. There isn't a decent reason on earth why you
shouldn't have your fa----" "My father's!" cried
Elnora. She caught Margaret Sinton by the arm. "My father had
a violin! He played it. That's why I can! Where is it! Is it in
our house? Is it in mother's room?"
"Elnora!" panted Margaret. "Your mother will kill
me! She always hated it."
"Mother dearly loves music," said Elnora.
"Not when it took the man she loved away from her to make it!"
"Where is my father's violin?"
"Elnora!"
"I've never seen a picture of my father. I've never heard his
name mentioned. I've never had a scrap that belonged to him. Was
he my father, or am I a charity child like Billy, and so she hates
me?"
"She has good pictures of him. Seems she just can't bear to
hear him talked about. Of course, he was your father. They lived
right there when you were born. She doesn't dislike you; she merely
tries to make herself think she does. There's no sense in the world
in you not having his violin. I've a great notion----"
"Has mother got it?"
"No. I've never heard her mention it. It was not at home when
he--when he died."
"Do you know where it is?"
"Yes. I'm the only person on earth who does, except the one
who has it."
"Who is that?"
"I can't tell you, but I will see if they have it yet, and
get it if I can. But if your mother finds it out she will never
forgive me."
"I can't help it," said Elnora. I want that violin."
"I'll go to-morrow, and see if it has been destroyed."
"Destroyed! Oh, Aunt Margaret! Would any one dare?"
"I hardly think so. It was a good instrument. He played it
like a master."
"Tell me!" breathed Elnora.
"His hair was red and curled more than yours, and his eyes
were blue. He was tall, slim, and the very imp of mischief. He joked
and teased all day until he picked up that violin. Then his head
bent over it, and his eyes got big and earnest. He seemed to listen
as if he first heard the notes, and then copied them. Sometimes
he drew the bow trembly, like he wasn't sure it was right, and he
might have to try again. He could almost drive you crazy when he
wanted to, and no man that ever lived could make you dance as he
could. He made it all up as he went. He seemed to listen for his
dancing music, too. It appeared to come to him; he'd begin to play
and you had to keep time. You couldn't be still; he loved to sweep
a crowd around with that bow of his. I think it was the thing you
call inspiration. I can see him now, his handsome head bent, his
cheeks red, his eyes snapping, and that bow going across the strings,
and driving us like sheep. He always kept his body swinging, and
he loved to play. He often slighted his work shamefully, and sometimes
her a little; that is why she hated it--Elnora, what are you making
me do?"
The tears were rolling down Elnora's cheeks. "Oh, Aunt Margaret,"
she sobbed. "Why haven't you told me about him sooner? I feel
as if you had given my father to me living, so that I could touch
him. I can see him, too! Why didn't you ever tell me before? Go
on! Go on!"
"I can't, Elnora! I'm scared silly. I never meant to say anything.
If I hadn't promised her not to talk of him to you she wouldn't
have let you come here. She made me swear it."
"But why? Why? Was he a shame? Was he disgraced?"
"Maybe it was that unjust feeling that took possession of her
when she couldn't help him from the swamp. She had to blame some
one, or go crazy, so she took it out on you. At times, those first
ten years, if I had talked to you, and you had repeated anything
to her, she might have struck you too hard. She was not master of
herself. You must be patient with her, Elnora. God only knows what
she has gone through, but I think she is a little better, lately."
"So do I," said Elnora. "She seems more interested
in my clothes, and she fixes me such delicious lunches that the
girls bring fine candies and cake and beg to trade. I gave half
my lunch for a box of candy one day, brought it home to her, and
told her. Since, she has wanted me to carry a market basket and
treat the crowd every day, she was so pleased. Life has been too
monotonous for her. I think she enjoys even the little change made
by my going and coming. She sits up half the night to read the library
books I bring, but she is so stubborn she won't even admit that
she touches them. Tell me more about my father."
"Wait until I see if I can find the violin."
So Elnora went home in suspense, and that night she added to her
prayers: "Dear Lord, be merciful to my father, and oh, do help
Aunt Margaret to get his violin."
Wesley and Billy came in to supper tired and hungry. Billy ate heartily,
but his eyes often rested on a plate of tempting cookies, and when
Wesley offered them to the boy he reached for one. Margaret was
compelled to explain that cookies were forbidden that night.
"What!" said Wesley. "Wrong words been coming again.
Oh Billy, I do wish you could remember! I can't sit and eat cookies
before a little boy who has none. I'll have to put mine back, too."
Billy's face twisted in despair.
"Aw go on!" he said gruffly, but his chin was jumping,
for Wesley was his idol.
"Can't do it," said Wesley. "It would choke me."
Billy turned to Margaret. "You make him," he appealed.
"He can't, Billy," said Margaret. "I know how he
feels. You see, I can't myself."
Then Billy slid from his chair, ran to the couch, buried his face
in the pillow and cried heart-brokenly. Wesley hurried to the barn,
and Margaret to the kitchen. When the dishes were washed Billy slipped
from the back door.
Wesley piling hay into the mangers heard a sound behind him and
inquired, "That you, Billy?"
"Yes," answered Billy, "and it's all so dark you
can't see me now, isn't it?"
"Well, mighty near," answered Wesley.
"Then you stoop down and open your mouth."
Sinton had shared bites of apple and nuts for weeks, for Billy had
not learned how to eat anything without dividing with Jimmy and
Belle. Since he had been separated from them, he shared with Wesley
and Margaret. So he bent over the boy and received an instalment
of cooky that almost choked him.
"Now you can eat it!" shouted Billy in delight. "It's
all dark! I can't see what you're doing at all!"
Wesley picked up the small figure and set the boy on the back of
a horse to bring his face level so that they could talk as men.
He never towered from his height above Billy, but always lifted
the little soul when important matters were to be discussed.
"Now what a dandy scheme," he commented. "Did you
and Aunt Margaret fix it up?"
"No. She ain't had hers yet. But I got one for her. Ist as
soon as you eat yours, I am going to take hers, and feed her first
time I find her in the dark."
"But Billy, where did you get the cookies? You know Aunt Margaret
said you were not to have any."
"I ist took them," said Billy, "I didn't take them
for me. I ist took them for you and her."
Wesley thought fast. In the warm darkness of the barn the horses
crunched their corn, a rat gnawed at a corner of the granary, and
among the rafters the white pigeon cooed a soft sleepy note to his
dusky mate.
"Did--did--I steal?" wavered Billy.
Wesley's big hands closed until he almost hurt the boy.
"No!" he said vehemently. "That is too big a word.
You made a mistake. You were trying to be a fine little man, but
you went at it the wrong way. You only made a mistake. All of us
do that, Billy. The world grows that way. When we make mistakes
we can see them; that teaches us to be more careful the next time,
and so we learn."
"How wouldn't it be a mistake?"
"If you had told Aunt Margaret what you wanted to do, and asked
her for the cookies she would have given them to you."
"But I was 'fraid she wouldn't, and you ist had to have it."
"Not if it was wrong for me to have it, Billy. I don't want
it that much."
"Must I take it back?"
"You think hard, and decide yourself."
"Lift me down," said Billy, after a silence, "I got
to put this in the jar, and tell her."
Wesley set the boy on the floor, but as he did so he paused one
second and strained him close to his breast.
Margaret sat in her chair sewing; Billy slipped in and crept beside
her. The little face was lined with tragedy.
"Why Billy, whatever is the matter?" she cried as she
dropped her sewing and held out her arms. Billy stood back. He gripped
his little fists tight and squared his shoulders. "I got to
be shut up in the closet," he said.
"Oh Billy! What an unlucky day! What have you done now?"
"I stold!" gulped Billy. "He said it was ist a mistake,
but it was worser 'an that. I took something you told me I wasn't
to have."
"Stole!" Margaret was in despair. "What, Billy?"
"Cookies!" answered Billy in equal trouble.
"Billy!" wailed Margaret. "How could you?"
"It was for him and you," sobbed Billy. "He said
he couldn't eat it 'fore me, but out in the barn it's all dark and
I couldn't see. I thought maybe he could there. Then we might put
out the light and you could have yours. He said I only made it worse,
cos I mustn't take things, so I got to go in the closet. Will you
hold me tight a little bit first? He did."
Margaret opened her arms and Billy rushed in and clung to her a
few seconds, with all the force of his being, then he slipped to
the floor and marched to the closet. Margaret opened the door. Billy
gave one glance at the light, clinched his fists and, walking inside,
climbed on a box. Margaret closed the door.
Then she sat and listened. Was the air pure enough? Possibly he
might smother. She had read something once. Was it very dark? What
if there should be a mouse in the closet and it should run across
his foot and frighten him into spasms. Somewhere she had heard--
Margaret leaned forward with tense face and listened. Something
dreadful might happen. She could bear it no longer. She arose hurriedly
and opened the door. Billy was drawn up on the box in a little heap,
and he lifted a disapproving face to her.
"Shut that door!" he said. "I ain't been in here
near long enough yet!"