THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 3, 6 August 1908, Page 3

THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN

From the hillside farmhouse the deep-toned bellow of the dinner-horn came reverberating down the valley. " It was., a thing of usance, so the surprising strength of the tiny, withered old woman who sounded it awoke, ho- sentiment in the workers below, other than one of punctual The crackle of sorghum cane-heads falling beneath keen knives in this field, the rattle of fodder-stripping in" that, ceased intermittently, as one here, or another there, stopped arid drew a moist shirt-sleeve across a moister forehead. The farmer himself, patriarchal of aspect, straightened his great height, lowering silently above them all, until "the crisp October breeze rustling the dry husks was the only sound. Then, as' his glance lifted to a^aded homespun skirt disappearing from the porch above, a twinkle lightened the blue eyes, glass-clear yet, after eighty years: You-uns,' he said, in his deep, v even tones, ' hetf best not let "Maw- hear,. ye go thet-a-way over thet thar show. She'll allow ye 're- plumb crazy.' Then he led the way up the slope with the long; slow stride of the mountaineer, covering much ground, yet equally Unhurried whether toward a wedding, a funeral, or merely dinner." The little, active 1 old woman who had prepared the meal, served it also, giving to' each the generous proportion of corn bread, cabbage, and squirrel-stew which long acquaintance with the tonic -effects of open-air labor had taught her to be necessary. It was not until she sat down to a preliminary draught of buttermilk that any one spoke. Then one of the hired men, taking up the idea last received lying fallow in a brain accustomed to postponement, said in stolid protest : 'Ef Mis'^-Todson could git' to go down to the post office an' see them thar bills with two-foot letters of the 'Biggest Aggravation in the World'; an' the blue an' green an' red an' yallow pictures of all the animiles thet went into the Ark with Noe, an' a lot more rampaccous ones thet no Ark could a held— why, she'd jes' want to go herself!' A hoarse murmur went round the* board in adhesion : ' Thet's so— she would.' 'She jes' would, by gum!' 'She shore would— supposin' she had eyes in her head!'. The humorous twinkle shone again in the farmer's look across at his wife. -Ye hear thet, Mandy?' Her small, keen features kept their composed shrewdness unmoved : ' I'm a-hearin' a heap o' things every day I thinks mighty ' little of. For all my old eyes is e'enamost as good as Jim Pyot's, IJkain't afford to go trottin' down to no post office to git 'em dazzled an' blinded an' ginully overcome. It's only men folk hez time for sech fool gapin' an' starin. Ez for me, I'm seventy— gimme the sop, Jim— an' I ain't been to no circus in my life, an' I ain't allowin 1 to go now. When'll you-uns git them molasses ready for bilin'?' It was a sobered party of men who changed their topic at her bidding. It came up, however, in the cane-field and the village store, and even returning from preaching, wherever singly \or conjointly they were fascinated by gaily-colored posters announcing the marvels presented by "Windem and Threepaws' * Mammoth Aggregation, Menagerie, Hippodrome, and Circus, Greatest in the World.' This was at "every turn in the road where surface of fence, rock, or tree invited disfigurement. Surely no actual human woman could be as beautjful as the sylph who, perched on one toe, hovered over twenty flying white steeds ! The pictured athlete playing marbles with cannon-balls could have left Samson his hair and overcome him at a canter." What ...awesome. dragons and fearsome beasts were these, winding their "^purple and crimson coils and curves and manes- and scales, and spouting fire! Lion-tamers and tight-rope dancers; \ lndian snake-charmers and African cannibals ; polka-dotted pigs playing chess and, Bengal tigers riding bicycles, flared from each board ,\in, kaleidoscopic glory before gloating rustic eyes. > • ' Shucks ! I don't believe thet thar- kin be true V might venture some lank agnostic. " ' To be" frowned down with :' ' Tis, then ; I seen it myself onct over to Beanville.' -' „ - The tidings went abroad from village to 'mountain top, from .post office to log-cabin nestling in far away' coves ; and this family group and that made preparation for the ten, twenty, thirty, or even forty-mile drive needed to see the show; or, lacking means for that, the street procession, at least.

Saturday, in the sorghum patch, with the last> of the syrup bubbling and thickening in the" evaporator, its sweet odor and the blue smoke of glowing logs floating far in the frosty .iir, old .Washington- -fpdson fell into ,.,lrpe< He heard, abstractedly such fragments as: 'Thirty camels!' Or, 'A hittamuspottamus big ez Sam's barn!' Or, 'Yes, sirree ; kin eat glass an' swaller snakes same's ye chew terbacker !' And broke in : ' How're ye boys goin' to this yere Aggravation?' ' Jim Pyot's waggon. Before sun-up, Monday.' ' Guess I'll go with ye. Ain't been to a show sence before the war. Maw'd think it plumb, foolish ; but she needn't »o 'spicion it 'tell after. She'll allow I'm a-goin' halfway with ye up to the cattle* range. ' A grin passed qbout, but it was a grin of sympathy. By lamp-light on Monday morning Mrs. Todson was stirring, and quickly and quietly preparing breakfast pone and coffee, and watching her husband's departure. ' Keep thet comforter round yer neck, Paw. Thar's a heavy frost. Don't let him forgit his dinner-pail, boys, when he leaves ye at the crossroads. ' She took her own breakfast, cleared up, and went "otit~ to the spring for more water in the cold and solemn day-break silence. Various waggons creaked past in the semi-darkness of the road below ; and now and again a shrill, childish voice came up to her in unwonted holiday note. She sighed and wrinkled her patient brow as she began, amid crow and twitter of awakening bird-life, to sweep her porch. Then there rattled and grumbled up to her door a waggon • drawn by a big mule and having chairs- inside, _and she made . ! out in the dimness the miller, his wife, and their three rosy boys. ' We're a-goin' to the show,' .said the wife. 'We want ye ' to go with us. We got a extry ticket along o' havin' so many bills pasted on the mill.' 'Me! Me!' cried Mandy Todson. Then thie. great, immemorial reaches of mountain to- front and rear smote' her with a sense of solitariness, new and strangely depressing. ' Paw'll be away all day,' she faltered. ' I ain't never allowed to do soch a thing ' ' 'T won't cost ye a cent,' urged the miller, ' I been a-hearin' ye ain't never seen a show.' * ' Wait for me, then.' She was gone but a few moments and returned in clean calico, carrying a bag of apples. ' The sweet kind,' she explained, as she settled into her chair and the mule jogged on. ' The boys '11 like 'em.' She sighed again, unconsciously, when the chubby youngsters gave shy thanks. The miller, after a look toward his wife, essayed with the instinctive tact of these folk, to drive away his guest's painful thought of another son absent and silent these many years. ' Thet thar Mounseer Alcidy ' — it was Alcide on the bills — ■' ye think he kin reelly fly?' ' 'Taint accordin' to natur' ' — cautiously — 'but I ain't asayin' he kain't. . Puts yer .head a-whirlin' Tike a mill-wheel — ' all them meracles Jim Pyot's been a-tellin'.' 'We'll soon see,' said the miller; which reflection heartened*all to such visible enjoyment as the self-contained mountaineer permits himself. • They jolted over .stony stretch, or strained uphill, or splashed through .ford in the , wake of a motley string of rusty waggons, reinforced in number at each cross-road ; and,' finally, at the town's approach, by similar processions from the • country-side everywhere. Stolidity itself was_ not proof against such posters as these on the Court House walls ; such sounds as joyous braying of brass bands ; such sights as an elephant "drinking from the creek like any common farm-horse — a kangaroo stretching his neck unconcernedly above a humble plank, fence! One of the miller's boys fell out of-the waggon, and was rescued from under the feet of a camel of the desert. The lion in a gilded , chariot roared and a leopard , answered. "The children were dazed and mute with joy; the- parents toutishly self-con-, srious ; with the quiet little old woman with' .them was noticeable anywhere, so erect her small figure, so keenly comprehen-. sive her observation of wonders undreamed of, so carefully , hidden under decent reserve her . amazement and excitement. ' Seems like a sin to be here 'thout Paw,' she said to the miller's wife; then she turned to .watch some restless -jaguars, and near the cage there stood her husband, and ' in dumb sur- • prise they gazed each at the other. ' 'Please my gracious Lordie's earth ! ' ejaculated Jim Pyot, ~ - who was a' church member; and again a. grin passed around his "* company,' .this time .one" appreciative of a situation. / Washington Todson was , the first to regain the readiness which had distinguished him as a soldier long ago. ' Let's hurry in,' said he to his wife.

The miller pushed a tickejt_jnto his hand. 'We kain't git seats together. You take keer o' Mis' Todson. '- So the old couple climbed. the wooden tiers by thems_elves, and found a place in the heterogeneous crowd that filled, the great te'nt^ from canvas to -canvas. ' I'd a-brung ye ef I'd a-thought ye'd a-come/ muttered Paw presently. Most likely, she imagined that he had only yielded to temptation at the cross-roads, for she answered simply : ' I'm powerful glad to find ye. I was worryin' for- ye. I ain't never ' been to sech' a place before. ' The clamorous blare of herald trumpets drew her notice, and in shimmer of tinsel and waving of silken banners and prancing of long-tailed horses came trooping in a brilliant procession. More than half a century of years slipped from her spirit and she straightway entered the children's Country vi Delight, as unsophisticated as one -of them. Her small, workhardened hand touched his, massive and bony, and he was included in her enjoyment. These wondrous, glittering knights and ladies, and dazzling fairies, and graceful steeds which had never seen a plough, emerged for her thrilling from some shining world afar, from which she had ignorantly dwelt. She was .a good rider herself, going often even now on bareback horse across the lonely mountain ranges, to salt the cattle. But to fly over twelve or more racing coursers, leap through hoops and over scarves and perch again infallibly — that was riding to make - one gasp ! The elegant gentleman in tall silk hat, cracking his whip," she considered to be rather hard on the grotesquelypainted clowns, though these she privately pronounced ' plumb fools,' and only through sympathy smiled when her husband twinkled and chuckled over their jokes. ' Shucks ! they ain't a-goin' to git hurt, 1 he reassured her, when she shut her .eyes at some trapeze performance, and again as the lion-tamer handled his uncertain pets. But equestrians, acrobats, trained animals, orchestral music, made such panoramic joy as furnished retiring place for her spirit in all the years that remained. . ' No, we don't want no chewin' gum,' Paw would say to the peddler during intermission, .' but send thet thar feller with the lemonade,' or ' peanuts,' as it might be. For this was" an .occasion for doing things royally, and Maw recognised" it too. ' Ef we ain't got no teeth, others hez,' she remarked placidly, sipping her rosy drink, ' git some gum for the miller's ■ boys.' Pleasures being like poppies spread, cannot in their nature endure forever, and there must be an end to even a ' Mammoth Aggregation,' though it be ' the Greatest in the World.' With dismissing clash and bang and roar and clang of cymbal, drum, bassoon, and triangle, the giant tent gave forth its thousands, jostling, chattering, dispersing. Escaping dismemberment from ' side-shows, the mountain couple found themselves rumpled and blinking in the outer air. ■ ' Biggest Giant on Earth,' she read wistfully on a srgn. ' I ain't got a cent left,' he answered regretfully. Then there was sudden wild shouting and stampeding, and in terrorised rush the crowd drove them with it. her*, and there reached them : ' Look out I He's loose ! The bear — the bear !' - ' Well,' said old Washington Todson calmly, ' what they • skeered of ef he js? Ain't we seen him dancin' to the man s fiddle?' 'It's a wild one, you woode'nhead ! ' cried a flying drummer jn a plaid suit. • I'd like to hit thet feller,' said Paw quietly, but his careful ,gaze overlooking the intervening throng sought the centre of disturbance. There where the great grizzly had actually escaped by reaching and lifting the iron bars of his cage, he was now hurling ' himself through the canvas into a crowd of farmers' families flying* for 'their lives to shelter. Through the grounds lW came, growling savagely and rushing at various scattering- groups. Almost in his path was a gentleman, presiddnt of. a hunting and • social club, known to the neighborhood as. 'The Be«r Killers.' • . Two of the showmen and three keepers in pursuit- yelled wildly to this gentleman, ' Stop~him ! Stop him!' ' I haven't lost any bear,' he answered without pause, and " took instant refuge in a tall windmill .tower. Hither and thither went the furious animal chasing the people into buildings and up on trees and fences. 'It was very probable >that at any moment the ludicrous would change into tragedy. Accident had brought his farm helpers in their flight near Washington Todson, and Jim Pyot had picked up a rifle somewhere.

' Whar ye runnin' to with that gun,' asked Paw sternly, * when ye'd ought to be a-aimin' it?" and plucked it fronvhim. -The bear, just .then surveying his field of conquest, turned, and singling out the old farmer's tall figure, bore down upon.yhinv.in an appallingly rapid shuffle. Todson took deliberate aim, and the immense, fierce brute reared himself up to give battle. ' Lord God!' breathed Jim P-yol, ' cf the ole man misses his - "fust shot!' " , -~\\~: Then from somewhere in^the- grove of canvas tents sped,' on • a trained pony, an athletic figure, ~a; big cow-puncher from" Oklahoma, and pulled up short, and.^hissed long and sibilantly, in close imitation _of a snake at:bay/'. The bearj ' cowed ' at the 'sound, dropped again on all-fours -and began to run. "Immediately the cowboy's ■ lariat whirled- and fell oyer^the* animal's" head, and the wise little pony circled, him again and' again until he was bound helplessly captive. ; The -big cow-puncher leaped to the ground, 'threw the bridle., to - a groom, pushed through the crowding people, and strode up to 7 Washington " Toiispri^ and' Mandy, his wife, standing" beside him 1 , very pale, but perfectly " quiet. ' You mought. a-killedihim,- Paw,' he said,' ' for I ' know.-.yer-; aim. But, ye see, he was kinder valuable to > the show;~lveven” cost them fifteen thousand — or, so they says ' " ------ -- - -.- A twinkle akin to his own crossed the sun-burned face into 1 ? which the father lpkcd with startled intentness. Then it -was"-. . replaced by something like the quiver, of a rrioustached lip,-"tis its owner lifted the spare little wdman from" the ground' "and held her tight. 'I ain't fitten'- for 3'e to wipe yer shoes on, Maw,' he whispered, ' but I come back after all this time to^ let. ye do it — if you're a mind.' Still holding her to him, he_< clasped his father's hand. ' That thrashin' ye giv' me for play-H?" in' cards an' swearin' behind the barn made me quit ye, -sic; j' but it's stayed with me, keepin' me out o' meaner ..scrapesjmaybe. Anyhow, I've come back — an' jes' in time, I guess',, foY '«• j a grizzly's a mighty ugly cuss to tackle. But, look ;a-here, /! Maw's as white as chalk!' - He was off for a jug of pink lemonade into which, behind-" the tent, he surreptitiously emptied the contents of a small I' flask. ' They need it, ' he muttered, ' after the bar — and me ! ' Then he put her into a surrey with horse comparatively swift.-.*: ' Don't talk to me -about no miller's waggon. I'm drivin' now, an' I ain't used to mules lately. Ef ye say another word, I'll -. buy the rig, 'stid o' hirin' it. Don't you worry about expenso,*" ; I've done well out on the plains, and got money invested. ButI just had -to come back — layin' awake nights a-dreamin' o' Glassy Creek tumblin' down the mounting, an' the chestnuts adroppin' crack ! crack ! An' Maw on the porch soundin' the" dinner-horn ;' and he kissed his mother's cheek in the sight of the people. So it happened that the equipage in which sat Maw, shame- s faced and profoundly happy, led, this time, the train of promiscuous vehicles carrying back to their mountain solitude?', "tjfie '" wearied, well-contented rustic folk. With them went memory 6?.~ such wonders as would recreate them after many a long, laborious \ day. And at the tail-end of the procession, Jim Pyot, tooting on a tin horn by way of celebration, stopped long enough to remark thoughtfully: 'We've shore hed a mighty intefestin' time, what with the Aggravation, the animiles, the bar breakin' . loose, and Jeff Todson comin' home again to his .PawH-an ? specially to his Maw.' — 'Catholic World.' • " ! ' . •