第46章 CHAPTER X(1)

WHEREIN ELNORA HAS MORE FINANCIAL TROUBLES,AND MRS.COMSTOCK AGAIN HEARS THE SONG OF THE LIMBERLOSTThe following night Elnora hurried to Sintons'.

She threw open the back door and with anxious eyes searched Margaret's face.

"You got it!"panted Elnora."You got it!I can see by your face that you did.Oh,give it to me!""Yes,I got it,honey,I got it all right,but don't be so fast.It had been kept in such a damp place it needed glueing,it had to have strings,and a key was gone.

I knew how much you wanted it,so I sent Wesley right to town with it.They said they could fix it good as new,but it should be varnished,and that it would take several days for the glue to set.You can have it Saturday.""You found it where you thought it was?You know it's his?""Yes,it was just where I thought,and it's the same violin I've seen him play hundreds of times.It's all right,only laying so long it needs fixing.""Oh Aunt Margaret!Can I ever wait?"

"It does seem a long time,but how could I help it?

You couldn't do anything with it as it was.You see,it had been hidden away in a garret,and it needed cleaning and drying to make it fit to play again.You can have it Saturday sure.But Elnora,you've got to promise me that you will leave it here,or in town,and not let your mother get a hint of it.I don't know what she'd do.""Uncle Wesley can bring it here until Monday.Then I will take it to school so that I can practise at noon.Oh,Idon't know how to thank you.And there's more than the violin for which to be thankful.You've given me my father.

Last night I saw him plainly as life."

"Elnora you were dreaming!"

"I know I was dreaming,but I saw him.I saw him so closely that a tiny white scar at the corner of his eyebrow showed.I was just reaching out to touch him when he disappeared.""Who told you there was a scar on his forehead?""No one ever did in all my life.I saw it last night as he went down.And oh,Aunt Margaret!I saw what she did,and I heard his cries!No matter what she does,I don't believe I ever can be angry with her again.Her heart is broken,and she can't help it.Oh,it was terrible,but I am glad I saw it.Now,I will always understand.""I don't know what to make of that,"said Margaret.

I don't believe in such stuff at all,but you couldn't make it up,for you didn't know.""I only know that I played the violin last night,as he played it,and while I played he came through the woods from the direction of Carneys'.It was summer and all the flowers were in bloom.He wore gray trousers and a blue shirt,his head was bare,and his face was beautiful.I could almost touch him when he sank."Margaret stood perplexed."I don't know what to think of that!"she ejaculated."I was next to the last person who saw him before he was drowned.It was late on a June afternoon,and he was dressed as you describe.

He was bareheaded because he had found a quail's nest before the bird began to brood,and he gathered the eggs in his hat and left it in a fence corner to get on his way home;they found it afterward.""Was he coming from Carneys'?"

"He was on that side of the quagmire.Why he ever skirted it so close as to get caught is a mystery you will have to dream out.I never could understand it.""Was he doing something he didn't want my mother to know?""Why?"

"Because if he had been,he might have cut close the swamp so he couldn't be seen from the garden.You know,the whole path straight to the pool where he sank can be seen from our back door.It's firm on our side.

The danger is on the north and east.If he didn't want mother to know,he might have tried to pass on either of those sides and gone too close.Was he in a hurry?""Yes,he was,"said Margaret."He had been away longer than he expected,and he almost ran when he started home.""And he'd left his violin somewhere that you knew,and you went and got it.I'll wager he was going to play,and didn't want mother to find it out!""It wouldn't make any difference to you if you knew every little thing,so quit thinking about it,and just be glad you are to have what he loved best of anything.""That's true.Now I must hurry home.I am dreadfully late."Elnora sprang up and ran down the road,but when she approached the cabin she climbed the fence,crossed the open woods pasture diagonally and entered at the back garden gate.As she often came that way when she had been looking for cocoons her mother asked no questions.

Elnora lived by the minute until Saturday,when,contrary to his usual custom,Wesley went to town in the forenoon,taking her along to buy some groceries.

Wesley drove straight to the music store,and asked for the violin he had left to be mended.

In its new coat of varnish,with new keys and strings,it seemed much like any other violin to Sinton,but to Elnora it was the most beautiful instrument ever made,and a priceless treasure.She held it in her arms,touched the strings softly and then she drew the bow across them in whispering measure.She had no time to think what a remarkably good bow it was for sixteen years'disuse.

The tan leather case might have impressed her as being in fine condition also,had she been in a state to question anything.She did remember to ask for the bill and she was gravely presented with a slip calling for four strings,one key,and a coat of varnish,total,one dollar fifty.It seemed to Elnora she never could put the precious instrument in the case and start home.Wesley left her in the music store where the proprietor showed her all he could about tuning,and gave her several beginners'sheets of notes and scales.She carried the violin in her arms as far as the crossroads at the corner of their land,then reluctantly put it under the carriage seat.