The Man on The Spot. Rutus Joe" tells the Story of his First Love. (Specially Written for the "Free Lance" Christmas Number.)

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 181, 19 December 1903, Page 22 (Supplement)

The Man on The Spot. Rutus Joe" tells the Story of his First Love. (Specially Written for the "Free Lance" Christmas Number.)

WE Mere a mixed lot of young fellows, picnicking in the Upper Hutt, and it was Rufus Joe's turn to spin a yarn. He tilted his hat back on hn, head, cleared his throat, and sailed in. * * * Our faim in the Wairarapa, he said, was next to Daltons, and Daltons daughter, Minnie, was a perfect little peach. She 1 was full of spirits, and always good-humoured, and half of the youn- fellows of the settlement were in love with iier. She treated us all alxke for a long time , there was a smile for each, and a turn of banter on occasions , but, at picnics and similar festivities of the village, Minnie distributed her favours impartially and no one of us was able -to secure her individual attention. In a long race, however, a big fiedd always dwindles awa" and in the end there weir© only Jim Johnson, and myself in. the running. It was hard to 1 say which was most favoured by Minnie, amd I think each of us thought that the other was her favourite. What Minnie thought I really don't know now. Old Dalton was a bluff old farmer, as full of fun asi his daughter wasi. but there was a method in his humour that always left the pith of the joke most apparent to himself. Jim and I would be at his place to have a talk with Minnie, and see each that the other did not get too much of her attention ; and jus^ as one of us would be settling comfort afclv for a talk with Minnie, the old mam would come along. "Well, Joe, melad," he wiuld say, "I know you're spoiling for the chance of a bit of exercise ! Co^ne along o' me, and w e'D fork a bit of hay for the stock." Of course, a chap had to keep sweet with him, and so I would get down to the hayrick where Dalton would slice a> big section of the stack, and then settle himself on the raals for a smoke. "There, lad, let's see you put that across for the oows — a nice bit of gentle exercise it will be to give you an appetite for tea '" There was always an openly-expressed opinion amongst my people that I w r as not partial to> work of any kind, but Dalton was very careful to contradict it whenever he had an audience. "Joe lazy? Nor-sense ! Why, wlue.iover he is at my place he is always turning lias hands to work — r^nd you can't tell me that he would be that way lucre every time he comes, and yet be afraid of work ?.t home'" No doubt he winked at the same time, but he never let mo see him do that. Dalton,, however, was impartial in his exactions, and Jim Johnson was 1 called oa to acsist in the odd jobs pk often as I was. The result was that I had an eoual chance with him to philander with Minnie, and I think I made an much (o; a® little) progress as ho did. Mrs. Dalton was not favourably dispo&ed to eather of us, though she did not go out of her way to make the fact obvious. She was a matter-of-fact, brusque sort of woman and occasionally she would interrupt a triangular talking competition betweom Minnie and Us twoi with ai remark that we lads would be better at home instead of sitting talking by the hour like a air of jackanapes 1 ! But we, armed with the indifference love has to all but its immediate ibject, would overlook the affront, and stay on until Minnie found reason to leave us, when we wooild both wander off promptly. I think that we wo'iild have stood bettor in Mrs. Daltons estimation but for an unfortunate- event that took place* on the lake that bordered one side of the fi.rm. There was a flat-bottomed boat on it, and one afternoon Jim Johnson persuaded Minnie to go for a, row with, him in it. I went too, though uninvited and the outing was not ast any parti of it remarkable for good fellowship. I let Jim do the rowing for as lom^ as he would, but, finally, he called on me to take a turn at the oars. As I moved down to do so, something dis^ turbed the balance of the bc-at, and next moment we were floundering up to oiur armpits m the shallow lake. I rushed to "save" Minnie, and Jim did the same, and there ensued an unseemly struggle in the water for the honour of averting: a drowning danger that njC'ver existed. Minnie's deprecating app€*al to us "not to- be a set of fools" finally^ convinced us «i{ the absurdity of our"^K>6itions, so I righted the boat, arid fun got Minnie into it, after which we pushed the cranky oraft. to land, and there got the length of Mrs. Daltons tongue — that lady having been a. witness of the proceedings. Her discor-se 1 to us was withering, and even at this length of time I'm not inclined' to recall it any more than I can help. * * * One day Dalton had in the field about half-an-acre of hay that was just fit to

be oarted in, and, as Jim and I wore ready to hand, he enlisted our assistance as usual. When the' job was over ho talked to the two of us about the nev dairy-factory that was just being built, and about the accident that happened, to old Morrissey's horse last week, and one or two other local happen nigs , and then he said, "Just wait for about two minutes while I fill me pipe !" When he had done thas, he thoughts fully blew some huge blue clouds of smoke, and them he fixed us with a most quizzical glance in hisi blue eve, and said "The proper thing for a man to do when he is thinking of getting married is to make sure he is able to keep' a wife in comfort!" I was dumbfounded with surprise, and! grew red in the face, while Jim, swallowed a mouthful of nothing in particular, and became positively green in appearance. These untoward happenings were seemingly unnoticed by Dalton, for he went on in placid tones to say that if, by any chance, we two young fellows took it into our heads 1 to court a girl we would l have no prospects of keeping her, seeing that we were deipendent on our parents for our livelihoods. "If ever anyone comes a-courting Minnie — .and it's really a matter of surprise to me that no one hasi don© so already !" (we both felt bad again at this juncture) — "I'll be 'scootrapooohed' if he'll get any hearing from, me unless he Is earning his own Gving. But, that's neither here nor there," he concluded, "time enough when somebody comes'" * * * Well, Jim and I talked it over, subsequently, and we finally made a business alliance, reserving the right to resume rivalry for Minnie when we had qualified to be benedicts' according to the requirements of Mr. Dalton. We got allowances from our fathers, and went away to a gold rush that had taken place on the other island, where we soon discovered that at gold-digging there generally was a lot of hard work to be done for a very small reward — especially when the reward was> measured in the bushel of youthful expectations. Yet, w© were not unsuccessful, and the field promised permanence, too. At tilie end of a year I thought myself doubly lucky, for fickle Joe had fallen, m lovo with Mary Joyce, the da.ughter of a mine manager, who was not deaf to his golden words ; and as 1 for mci, I loved Minnie as well as ever, and I was about to re-visit the old home in a state o f worldly expectations such as Mr. Dalton had declared to be a sine qua non in the man who would marry Minnie. When I parted from Jim. he bade me an, affectionate farewell. "She's a good Kttlo girl, Joe!" he said "and' I wish you joy of her. I knew all along that she liked you better than me, old boy, and when I met Mary here I knew that my regard for Minnie was only as a sister after all ' Tell her I wish you both joy '" Well, I got back to the old place on Christmas Eve, and the first man I met was old Dalton, right at the railway station. '"Glad to see you, Joe, me boy '" said l.c , "and how have you been getting along?" My prosperity abated nothing: in the zecounting, and Dalton, congratulated me, saying that he knew I had grit in me. I congratulated myself on having successfully overcome his opposition to my w r ooing, and when I asked him how Minnie was, he beamed with satisfaction ' Oh, Minnie," he answered, "she's splendid! She's a great housekeeper is Minnie, and they do siay that her farmhouse is the neatest one thas side of the big river." "Her farmhouse?" I gasped. "Yes," he answered, "why not? I always said that no one would marry Minnie unless 1 he had a good home, and was able to earn his own living. Well, Jerry Taylor I reckon, has the best pig-farm in the district, and Minnie's as well set up as any young woman hereabouts '" * # * "Well, bovs>," Rufus Joe concluded, ''that knocked me bandy ' Jerry was a decent enough you ig fellow, but we had all reckoned he had no "go" in him. He ns always 1 mooning around, swapping dogs s.ad trading a calf, and so on — petting the pieces u.idor the clock as they say in Wellington — but all the timo we young chaps •*. ere making the running with Minnie he was not even a trier." "Oh, well," said a Job's comforter amongst the eathering, "he came with a late run, and beat you in the last distance!" "Yes, that was it," quoth Rufus, with a half-comical, half- rueful philosophy , "the early bird catches the codhn grub, but it's the man on the spot who catches the vacillating woman."