Isabel Ostrander

“ With that, in spite of this strange, new weariness which dragged at her heart, Lou’s indomitable spirit reasserted itself, and her small teeth clamped together. She would make herself a place somewhere, somehow.
Returning to the house, she took the ironing from her tired hostess’s hands, and worked steadily until at sundown the high treble of childish voices came to her ears, and Jim’s merry, laughing tones in reply sent a quick stab through her, but she put down the iron and went determinedly out on the porch. ”

“ An hour later when Jim came slowly up the hill road from the direction of Hudsondale, he saw a tiny smudge of smoke rising from a rock well hidden in the rank undergrowth at the edge of the stream, and approaching it found Lou industriously brushing her coat with a broom which she had improvised of small twigs tied together. Beside her, carefully cradled in her sunbonnet, were half a dozen new-laid eggs. ”

“ Then it was that a small, pink-checked cyclone whirled through the rows of closely 68packed humanity and half-way round the arena to the curtain, while above the clamor of the band arose a shrill cry; “Jim! Jim!”
“Did you see her?” The lady who had commented upon the rider’s appearance demanded of the gentleman beside her. “She called him Jim, too; isn’t that odd? Do you suppose, Jack, that she is with the circus; that little country girl?” ”

“ As though reading his thoughts, Lou remarked:
“Only a beast himself would treat a horse that way. The folks at the farm where I was treated theirs somethin’ terrible. If he don’t look out he’ll go over the side of the bridge.”
Jim had already started for the road in front of the mill, and Lou followed him, just as a perilously swaying lantern came to view, showing an old-fashioned carriage of the “buggy” type containing a single occupant and drawn by a horse which was streaked with lather. ”

“ As Jim surveyed that wickedly lowered head with its small eyes rolling viciously, his heart misgave him for a moment. What if he should fail? It was long since he had practiced those rough-riding stunts that had made him in demand for those society circuses of the ante-bellum days, and longer yet since he had learned to break a bronco on the ranch, 61which had been Bill Hollis’s hobby for a season.
What if that devil of a pony should best him in the struggle, and he should be thrown ignominiously from the lot before the eyes of the girl who was waiting patiently for him? ”

“ The ladies were closely swathed in their veils, but she remembered the distinctive plaids of their silk coats, and the stout gentleman who sat between them in the tonneau, with goggles and hat snatched off in the excitement of the impending smash-up, was unmistakably the one who had called out “Good work!” when Jim was performing on the horse.
The other gentleman who had made up the quartet was the one who drove the car, and her quick glance showed her that he was even then trying to avoid the crash. ”

“ The light wagon hit the bridge with a 36bounce which almost sent it careening over into the rushing stream below, and at the same moment Lou uttered an odd exclamation, more of anger than fear, and straightened up to her full height.
“It’s Max!” she informed Jim. “You git back behind the mill; you ain’t fit to fight─”
“What do you take me for?” Jim demanded indignantly. “Max Hess, eh? The fellow who treated you so badly back at that farm? I wanted to get him this morning, the hound! You go straight back into the mill yourself, and leave me to handle him.” ”

“ The food tasted good, and the little red cloth beneath the dishes was clean, but the signs of carefully concealed poverty were everywhere visible to Jim’s eyes, and he suspected another reason for the lack of farm-hands than scarcity of labor. He hurried through his meal, and went at once to the hay-field, while Lou, after insisting on clearing the dishes away, went back to the wash-tub, and their hostess returned to her own belated ironing. ”

“ James Botts’s own face reddened.
“I’m walking to my home in New York,” he explained. “But I’m late; I ought to make it by a certain date, and I don’t think I’ll be able to, since my encounter with Terwilliger’s bull. Where do you live? I mean, where are you going? Where is your home?”
“Nowheres,” Lou Lacey replied offhandedly, following with her eyes the graceful swoop of a dragonfly over the tumbling waters of the little stream.
“Great Scott!” The astounded young man sat up suddenly, with his hand to his head. “Why, everybody has a home, you know!” ”

“ Jim snapped, and wondered at his own indignation. “We’ll find something suitable for you to do, or you can go to school─”
“School!” she interrupted him in her turn. “I–I’d like to learn things an’ be like other folks, but I ain’t–I mean I’m not–goin’ to any institootion.”
He glanced at her curiously. This was the first time she had made any conscious effort to correct herself, the first evidence she had given that she had noted the difference between his speech and hers.
“I didn’t mean an institution, but a real school, Lou,” he explained gently. ”

“ Lou, who had hunched about in her seat to stare at the assorted array of articles in the body of the van, turned and looked curiously at him. Surely that hard bulge in the coat upon which she had slept on the previous night had been the bowl of a pipe! The eyes which Jim had called “violet blue” narrowed for an instant in puzzled wonderment, then blurred as with swift understanding she glanced down at the new pink apron and 49stroked it softly. But Jim had gone on talking rather nervously.
“You don’t get much trade around here, do you? Not many houses in these mountains.” ”

“ In the row directly in front of Lou sat a quartet who were obviously out of place among their bucolic neighbors, but as obviously bent on amusing themselves. The ladies of the party wore brilliant sweaters beneath their long silk motor coats, and veils floated from their small round hats, and the gentlemen wore long coats, too, and had goggles pushed up on their caps. ”

“ I was just wondering–I don’t see why it couldn’t be done,” he replied somewhat haltingly. “There isn’t any house near, and I don’t think anything will hurt you.”
The latter probability seemed of no moment to Lou. She fell asleep again with her sponge cake half eaten, and he picked her up and nestled her in the hay as though she were in very truth a child. Then, as on the first night at the deserted mill near Hudsondale, he sat down at the foot of the haystack, on guard. ”

“ He had seen women with violet-blue eyes in more countries than one; beautiful women with every enhancement which breeding and wealth could bestow. It must have been sheer surprise in discovering any attribute of prettiness at all about so uncompromisingly homely a girl as poor little Lou. ”

“ Jim remarked.
The old man gave him a sly glance.
“That’s how you look at it,” he replied. “They oughter go up twice the price they be. My wife’s doin’ the hired man’s work now, an’ she’s allus pesterin’ me to git an incubator, but them things cost a powerful sight of money, an’ I don’t hold with new-fangled notions; too much resk to them. You can allus sell hens when they git too old to set or lay, but what’re you going to do with a wore-out incubator?”
He cackled shrilly at his own witticism and then grew morose again. “The way things is, there ain’t no profit skeercely in nothin’.” ”

“ Lou appeared shyly in the door in a gown several sizes too large for her. “He’d like it, too, I think, and he can help with the hayin’ till the things git dried out enough, so’s we kin go on.”
“Oh, would he?” the woman asked quickly. “I’d pay him well if he’s looking for work; I can’t get any hands, though I’ve tried, and the hay is rotting for want of being turned. I didn’t think I’d seen you two around here before, but I’ve known old Mr. Weeble always.”
“You mean that–that with the egg-wagon? He was givin’ us a lift into Riverburgh; we’re just traveling through,” Lou added shortly. ”

“ It was your own business, of course, if you didn’t want to give your real name to anybody─”
“Listen, Lou.” He had caught her other hand now and was holding them both very tightly. “You are going on with me! I can’t explain now about my name, but it doesn’t matter; nothing matters except that you are not going to be a quitter! You said that you would go on to New York with me, and you’re going to keep your word.” ”

“ Lou agreed placidly. Then her tone changed. “There’s somebody comin’ up the road from Hudsondale like all in creation was after ’em.”
Indeed, the sound of a horse’s mad gallop up the steep road by which they had come was plainly to be heard increasing in volume, and the grating jar of wheels as though a wagon were being thrown from side to side.
“Think it’s a runaway?” Jim rose and 35strained his eyes into the darkness at the farther end of the bridge.
“No; driver’s drunk, maybe,” Lou responded. “The horse’s dead beat an’ he’s lashin’ it on. Listen!” ”

“ You’re not going to work any more, Lou. You’re going to a lovely old lady who lives in a big 130house all by herself, and there you are going to study and play until you are really grown up, and know as much as anybody.”
She smiled and shook her head.
“This is the sort of place for me, Jim. I wasn’t meant for anythin’ else, an’ if I should live to be a hundred I could never know as much as that lady at the circus who called you ‘Jimmie Abbott.’”
“What–” Jim exploded for the second time. ”

“ Jim watched her, amused but touched also. To that luxury-starved little soul the coarse handkerchiefs and cheap perfume meant rapture, and he resolved to see that the gray-haired lady in New York provided something better for Lou than a servant’s position. Education, perhaps─
“It must be past noon, for the shadows have started to go the other way.” Her voice broke in upon his meditations. “We’d better eat the rolls an’ ham now. How far is it to where we’re goin’?” ”

“ Lou had vanished from the haystack, but he found her at a little spring in a strip of woodland on the other side of the road, and they breakfasted hastily, conserving the last fragments of food for their midday meal, and started off.
They had left the last chimney of Parksville well behind them when Jim suddenly observed:
“You’re limping, Lou. Let me see your shoes.”
She drew away from him.
“It’s nothin’,” she denied. “My shoes are all right. I–I must’ve slept too long last night an’ got sort of stiffened up.” ”

“ She could have stood for an hour drinking in all the wonders of the poster, but Jim hurried her on although he was filled with sympathy. Poor little kid! What a rotten, black sort of life she must have had, and how he wished that he might take her to this tawdry, cheap affair and watch her naïve enjoyment.
But their combined capital would not have covered the price of the tickets, and there was 58supper to be thought of, and the hazards of the immediate future. For the present the circus must remain an unattained dream to Lou. ”

“ Rolling fields and woodland stretched away illimitably on both sides of the road, and not even a cow shed appeared as they hurried onward, while the clouds mounted higher, and the rumble of thunder grew upon the air. The sun had vanished, and a strange, anticipatory stillness enveloped them, broken only by that hollow muttering.
“It’s comin’ up fast.” Lou broke the silence with one of her seldomly volunteered remarks. “Shall we git into the woods? I’d as lief dodge trees as be drowned in the road.”
“No!” Jim shook his head. “There is some kind of a shack just ahead there ”