第20章 CHAPTER IV(6)
Ain't it queer that she'd take to stones,bugs,and butterflies,and save them.Now they are going to bring her the very thing she wants the worst.Lord,but this is a funny world when you get to studying!Looks like things didn't all come by accident.Looks as if there was a plan back of it,and somebody driving that knows the road,and how to handle the lines.Anyhow,Elnora's in the wagon,and when I get out in the night and the dark closes around me,and I see the stars,I don't feel so cheap.Maggie,how the nation did Kate Comstock do that?""You will keep on harping,Wesley.I told you she didn't do it.Elnora did it!She walked in and took things right out of our hands.All Kate had to do was to enjoy having it go her way,and she was cute enough to put in a few questions that sort of guided Elnora.But Idon't know,Wesley.This thing makes me think,too.
S'pose we'd taken Elnora when she was a baby,and we'd heaped on her all the love we can't on our own,and we'd coddled,petted,and shielded her,would she have made the woman that living alone,learning to think for herself,and taking all the knocks Kate Comstock could give,have made of her?""You bet your life!"cried Wesley,warmly."Loving anybody don't hurt them.We wouldn't have done anything but love her.
You can't hurt a child loving it.She'd have learned to work,to study,and grown into a woman with us,without suffering like a poor homeless dog.""But you don't see the point,Wesley.She would have grown into a fine woman with us;but as we would have raised her,would her heart ever have known the world as it does now?Where's the anguish,Wesley,that child can't comprehend?Seeing what she's seen of her mother hasn't hardened her.She can understand any mother's sorrow.
Living life from the rough side has only broadened her.
Where's the girl or boy burning with shame,or struggling to find a way,that will cross Elnora's path and not get a lift from her?She's had the knocks,but there'll never be any of the thing you call `false pride'in her.I guess we better keep out.Maybe Kate Comstock knows what she's doing.
Sure as you live,Elnora has grown bigger on knocks than she would on love.""I don't s'pose there ever was a very fine point to anything but I missed it,"said Wesley,"because I am blunt,rough,and have no book learning to speak of.
Since you put it into words I see what you mean,but it's dinged hard on Elnora,just the same.And I don't keep out.
I keep watching closer than ever.I got my slap in the face,but if I don't miss my guess,Kate Comstock learned her lesson,same as I did.She learned that I was in earnest,that I would haul her to court if she didn't loosen up a bit,and she'll loosen.You see if she doesn't.
It may come hard,and the hinges creak,but she'll fix Elnora decent after this,if Elnora doesn't prove that she can fix herself.As for me,I found out that what I was doing was as much for myself as for Elnora.I wanted her to take those things from us,and love us for giving them.
It didn't work,and but for you,I'd messed the whole thing and stuck like a pig in crossing a bridge.But you helped me out;Elnora's got the clothes,and by morning,maybe I won't grudge Kate the only laugh she's had in sixteen years.You been showing me the way quite a spell now,ain't you,Maggie?"In her attic Elnora lighted two candles,set them on her little table,stacked the books,and put away the precious clothes.How lovingly she hung the hat and umbrella,folded the raincoat,and spread the new dress over a chair.
She fingered the ribbons,and tried to smooth the creases from them.She put away the hose neatly folded,touched the handkerchiefs,and tried the belt.Then she slipped into her white nightdress,shook down her hair that it might become thoroughly dry,set a chair before the table,and reverently opened one of the books.A stiff draught swept the attic,for it stretched the length of the cabin,and had a window in each end.Elnora arose and going to the east window closed it.She stood for a minute looking at the stars,the sky,and the dark outline of the straggling trees of the rapidly dismantling Limberlost.In the region of her case a tiny point of light flashed and disappeared.
Elnora straightened and wondered.Was it wise to leave her precious money there?The light flashed once more,wavered a few seconds,and died out.The girl waited.
She did not see it again,so she turned to her books.
In the Limberlost the hulking figure of a man sneaked down the trail.
"The Bird Woman was at Freckles's room this evening,"he muttered."Wonder what for?"
He left the trail,entered the enclosure still distinctly outlined,and approached the case.The first point of light flashed from the tiny electric lamp on his vest.He took a duplicate key from his pocket,felt for the padlock and opened it.The door swung wide.The light flashed the second time.Swiftly his glance swept the interior.
"'Bout a fourth of her moths gone.Elnora must have been with the Bird Woman and given them to her."Then he stood tense.His keen eyes discovered the roll of bills hastily thrust back in the bottom of the case.
He snatched them up,shut off the light,relocked the case by touch,and swiftly went down the trail.Every few seconds he paused and listened intently.Just as he reached the road,a second figure approached him.
"Is it you,Pete?"came the whispered question.
"Yes,"said the first man.