The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 1 May 1913, Page 5

The Storyteller

THU; AWAKENING ■ ~ ■* 'Of course Dave's a fool; but it can't be helped now.' - David Manson strode heavily across the piazza and sat down in a big chair. It was not time that had caused. his broad shoulders to droop, nor years that had brought the listless expression to his saddened eyes. Rather it was the gradual breaking down* of his peculiarly sensitive spirit. ' He drew from his pocket a picture—the picture of the girl his son had married less than an hour before. , ' I wish you were big and black-eyed and manag-ing-looking,' he said, addressing it disapprovingly. ' Then, maybe, Dave would be on the lookout and would dodge the bit. But you little women get the reins into your hands before we suspect what you're about, and you make us feel like brutes if we try to get them Back, so you do the driving. And it isn't the way 'twas intended. It isn't right.' Sighing, he thrust the picture back into his pocket and went into the kitchen to wash his sweater. It hurt Julia's side to wash sweaters.

There were always things for him to do for Julia in the house, and they seemed to be most urgent when the field-work called him, and when his muscles twitched with eagerness to be out in the open, directing his men, and leading in the race with storm or darkness. 7 His wife believed that she was not strong. To the world she was a pretty, plaintive little woman, but her greed for management was all the more rapacious because of her physical weakness; before David knew what was happening, he had been crowded into the background of his own affairs. He was far from stupid, but it had taken him a. long time to learn that his wife was not the clinging, adoring woman he thought he had married. *

..; Now he saw in the pictured curves of Marion's pretty mouth and in the serious expression of her frank

eyes the type. of woman who 'can so easily bind a, man to her chariot-wheels, and he was disappointed to think that Dave had repeated the mistake he himself had once made. .-'', ':;■ \ /--.-' ~\\'7 ■-■ ■ '■,-. V-^-':

'l've prospered in spite of it,' he said, erimlv. as he looked out of the window to the gently rolling hills. ' But I've got mightly little satisfaction out of it. And ten years ago we might have been where we are to-day if I'd had. my say. But my judgment wasn't worth considering. Things had to wait till Dave got through college and gave his advice. It was good, too,' he ungrudgingly admitted. He rubbed his sweater vigorously. . . '', reform,' he reflected, bitterly, M everyone is happy but if I should try to reform, I guess there'd be precious little rejoicing in this family.' When he met his wife at the station that night, his mood had softened little.

'O David, she's sweet!' she said, in her thin, irritating voice. ' I wish you had gone. I don't know what she thinks.'

Well. I spoke about it,' he reminded her, patiently. 'Why, David Manson, you know you didn't' have time to get new clothes after they changed the date of the wedding, and your old ones are a sight! I wouldn't have had you go in those for a hundred dollars! Goodness knows I wish you'd keep yourself in better shape!' I wore,' David contended.

'David,' said Mrs. Manson, in her usual fretful voice, 'I don't believe you realise what it means to have Dave marry Judge Blake's daughter.' 'What I'm realising it that she may not be the right kind of wife for Dave. I hope he won't begin by letting her manage him.' •".:•' Mrs. Manson shot a queer glance at her husband. ' I don't know what's got into you, David. But I know that I'm tired to death, and when I get home I'm going to bed and have you bring me some toast and tea.' David did not share in the flutter of expectancy that preceded the home-coming. of Dave and his bride. And when he took Marion's hand in his, and looking into her winsome face, caught the wistfulness in her straightforward gray eyes, he steeled his heart. ' She'd have me leave the haying to hold worsted for her if I'd do ft,' he thought. As the days went by, the conviction grew in Marion's mind that Dave's father did not like her. It troubled her more than she cared to admit; it marred the happiness of her first days on the farm. . 'I wonder why he dislikes me?' she said to herself many times a day. I've got to find out.' Her opportunity came one evening, when they were all sitting on the piazza in the long twilight. ' I must go and see to the colt,' Dave said. •.' He was hot when I brought him in.' 'Let father go,' Mrs. Manson suggested. 'You're tired, dear.' ,' : And Dave, who had always been influenced by his mother, looked expectantly toward his father. •"-.Mr. Manson got up slowly and started off to the barn. Marion flushed, and rose. ' I'm going with your father,' she said. • . - Dave started to follow, but she said, 'Stay where you are, Dave,' and ran down the. path. . 'Why didn't you come to my wedding, and why don't you like me?' she asked, breathlessly, when she had overtaken Mr. Manson.

'Well, you see,' he explained slowly, 'I couldn't get any new clothes in time.'

'As-if I would have cared about clothes!'

Who says I don't like you?' 'You do, every time you look at me. But. let's not talk about that now. I've seldom been on a farm till now, and I'm going to love it. I want you to tell me all about it-'

' Get Dave to.'

'Dave's all right, Mr. Manson, but do you. suppose I would study music with the village teacher if

I could have a real musician ? Compared to you, Dave knows nothing whatever about this farm, its romance —' * ■ You'll rind, young woman, that there's a good deal more than romance in farming.' /' She was thoughtful. 'Of course. There's been death-—— ' *

! My father and mother,' he said simply. 'And life—-' '•'..'

' There's Dave.'

', .'And hopes and struggles and achievements.' i His face became sad; of most of these he had been cheated. • / ;. For a long time they talkedtill the shadows grew dim and were finally blotted out. ' ■'j /-Before they had done he knew all about her motherless years and her - loneliness since her father's death, five years earlier. And she, almost a stranger, knew more of him than his nearest kinsfolk did-more, perhaps, than he himself knew of his crushed desires. She was silent while they walked back to the house. Dave's form loomed up on the dark piazza. 'Where have you people been?' he asked. - ' We've been sitting on the pole of a hay-waggon, getting acquainted,' Marion replied. : David Manson went into the house. He was unaccountably light-hearted.

'Why, if I haven's been enjoying myself!' he thought, wonderingly. ' Dave,' said Marion, do you know your father is splendid?' Why, of course he is. If he could have stayed in college he would certainly have been an honor man.' ' He's an honor man right now.' 'What's that?' Mrs. Manson's thin voice penetrated the darkness. She came out swathed in a white shawl.

'Marion's singing father's praises.' ' Well, she ought to,' Mrs. Manson said. ' He's the best man that ever breathed. But I do wish he'd fix himself up a little and seem to care about things. He's terribly careless about his appearance. Mrs. Manson sighed. 'Sometimes I'm so ashamed!' Marion was silent. ( They don't know,' she said to herself. 'The pity of it!' The next morning Marion, unable to sleep, was downstairs before she heard any one stirring in the house. When she entered the kitchen, she came upon Mr. Manson, kneading a mass of dough. She stopped, astonished.

' What are you doing ?' The old impenetrable shell of reserve dropped over him. i

'lt hurts Julia's side to knead bread, he explained.

Marion thought swiftly, ' I'm afraid I'm going to dislike Julia.' Aloud she said 'Let me do that. I've studied cookery, and here's my chance to see what I know.'

He v remonstrated, but her hands were soon in the dough!

'Mr. Manson.' She had suddenly stopped, and her cheeks flushed. ' Please don't think me inquisitive, but is this necessary. Could we afford help?' ' Plenty of it,' he answered. Then why ' Julia's particular, and ' he hesitated. ' I understand,' Marion said. ' And the foreman's wife? She couldn't helo out?'

'No, she boards the help,' he explained. There followed a period of several weeks during which Marion devoted herself to Dave's father. She accompanied him to the fields ; she talked to him at table; and little by little she drew him out of himself. ' I should think it was father you had married instead of me,' her husband said.

.... One morning, when she was v downstairs early, me came upon Mr. Manson, dressed in his shabby best, shining his shoes.

He looked up, startled. I'm going to the fair,' he said, 'but I haven't told any one. They are going to exhibit some cattle that I feel sure aren't so good as mine.'

'Why in the world didn't you send yours?'

'I, wanted to,' but Dave and his moth thought it wasn't best.' • ' » '' v ,*■■?■--,

We will next year. Are you going alone?' 7 ■ ,"' Yes.•' 1 haven't been without Julia for ten years, but I'm not going to take her this time. She always gets a headache and has to be brought home before noon.' ' ■ -

:••■■:. .' I don't: get headaches,' Marion said. ' .' • "~ ' Would you go • A gleam of interest lighted up his weather-beaten face. He looked from her white-shod feet up tocher young eyes and shining hair. It would be good fun to go away for a day with this eager girl. . \" -■■-: ' Would I! Father Manson, you get the team without a sound, and I'll put something in a box for breakfast.' ■ " -' • '. -s^Wm

It was late when they returned, tired but exultant. At least, Marion was exultant. Mr. Manson always seemed abashed in the presence of his wife and son. Mrs. Manson's greeting was not cordial, but Dave took the escapade as a good joke. ' The cattle did not compare with ours, did they, dad?' Marion exclaimed. 'lf we don't take some blue ribbons next year we're no farmers. Oh, it's been a splendid day !' - ; The next morning Marion was up and had the breakfast ready before Mrs. Manson came down. Mrs. Manson was more than usually fretful, and she ignored Marion's presence. ' Your father can't stir,' she said to Dave. ' I knew he'd pay.for that madness. He's, got the worst" attack of rheumatiism he's had for years. To go off that way, like a child! I always bring him home early when I go.' ' May I go up to see him ?' asked Marion. Mrs. Manson said slowly, He asked to have you go up.' --'■

Your father's afraid she'll blame herself,' -Mrs. Manson said to her son when Marion had gone. ' And she ought to. She seems to encourage him >in his freaks.'

Marion is splendid,' Dave replied. • 'You know she is.'

When Marion came down, Mrs. Manson and Dave were at breakfast. 'l'm going to fix up a tray,' girl said, ' and then I'll be with you. Unless you would rather do it.' She looked inquiringly at Mrs. Manson. 'I can't carry a tray upstairs,' the older woman declared. ' I don't see who's going to take care of him, anyway.' 'I am, if there's no one else to do it.' Marion's voice was dangerously soft. 'Do you, perhaps, remember who took care of you two days last week?' Marion Dave exclaimed.

' Oh, I don't mean to be rude, but it's time some one opened the eyes of you two, dear, blind bats. Can't you see that he's hurt—that he thinks he isn't needed? Nothing kills so quickly as that. What if he should think he isn't wanted A father! He's living alone, isolated, in the midst of his family. I'm beginning to find out what he is, how big and splendid..' She " turned to Dave, flushed with indignation. ' Whose farm is this ? Don't you suppose he wants to plan and do the big things on it ? Yet I've never heard you consult him, or known you to take his seldomproffered advice. And it's good advice, too. I've seen him scrubbing the piazza floor, and kneading the bread, and washing clothes when he was aching to be out there managing his own affairs. Do you suppose men like to do such things? But he's so good he lets you rob him of his birthright.' ' Marion,' Dave said, ' you're overwrought and exaggerating this matter.' .. Am I, Dave I don't think you've done these things intentionally. But .from now on let's count him in our plans. And let's have a girl for the heavy work.'

' She'll shrink the flannels.' That was all that Mrs. Manson, overwhelmed, could find to say. ' Do you prefer a shrunken spirit to shrunken flannels?'

There was silence in the pleasant room: then Marion started out to the garden to get some flowers

for the; tray. , She glanced in the hall mirror at the reflection of her flushed face, 3|nd nodded to it gravely.-" ;: -'" ■'■■*. ■- - ' '- that you are new. If you had been here a year, your retreat might not have been so orderly/ ' ' For a few moments after Marion had left them, Dave and his mother sat silent. . ".<

v., ' Mother,' 1 SDave said, and his voice was a "little hushed, 'it isn't so, is it?'

Mrs Manson tried to be honest.

' I don't think so,' she said, slowly. ' Well, we must make sure.'

For several days Mr. Manson was confined in his room; yet they were -the most satisfying days that he had known for a long time. ,;:- Marion read to him and surrounded him with the books that she had found he loved. Together they planned to turn the spacious upper hall into a library; she was to have all her father's books and many other things sent on for the room. ' I'll build some fine bookcases,' Dave said, enthusiastically. 'But lam afraid it will be cold there in the winter.' ~> -»

Then Mrs. Manson made a suggestion. She was a little shy, a little reluctant to show her approval, but she had become thoughtful since Marion's onslaught, and slie was putting her desires farther into the background than she ever had done before. ' There's a Franklin stove in the attic. We could have it fixed up, and it would be almost as good as a fireplace.' ' You dear !' Marion cried. ' Thank you !' It was not altogether the stove for which Marion was expressing thanks.

So the partnership expanded and grew big enough to include them all. Every morning Dave came in for advice, and the wonder in Mr. Manson's eyes gave place to contentment.

On a night late in the summer there was to be a mass-meeting in the village. A state issue that especially affected the neighborhood was to be discussed. 'lt's damp; do you think you'd better go?' Mrs. Manson asked her husband, anxiously. 'Don't you worry about me,' Julia,' he replied. Of course I'm going.' • Near the close of the meeting the chairman startled the Manson family by calling on Mr. Manson to express his views on the question. Mr. Manson drew a sharp breath. She had almost forgotten that her husband had an intelligence apart from hers, and the thought of his speaking was as terrifying to her as the prospect of addressing the meeting herself would have been. She clutched at his coat to keep him from rising On the other side, Marion was urging him on. He rose slowly but when once he was on his feet, the old exultation that he had felt in his brief college days, when he was a leader in the debates, surged over him. Quietly and forcibly, with no attempt at oratory, he laid before the people the, facts as he saw them and the logical inferences. There was not a better speech made, and after he had finished, there was no one who did not clearly understand the issue. He sat down, and was surprised at the burst of applause. 'O Father Manson, you're fine!' Marion exclaimed, when they were in the carriage. ' I think I'm going to cry.' ' I didn't know it was in you, David,' .his wife said, with her hand on his arm. That remark made up for the scrubbing of many floors. The next morning Marion went to the city. She returned while the Mansons were at dinner, and entered the dining-room, bearing a great bouquet of flowers. 'For the assemblyman-to-be!' she said, dramatically, and gave it to Mr. Manson. 'What are you talking about'?' Dave asked, bewildered.

' There were two men sitting in front of me on the train this morning,' she answered. ' They were talking about father's speech, and they said he was the

one man to send up to the legislature this fall. I don't know who they were, but,they .were personages. . 'They didn't mean Dave?' Mrs. Manson asked, anxiously. • • - ' I should think not! They said father "could go now : because young Dave had settled down.' David Manson rose. The stoop had disappeared from his body and the last trace of sadness from his eyes. The past was gone. Before him stretched a future of usefulness and activity,— new and splendid opportunityand he was content.