Clint

“ Never saw a boy that wasn't dyin' to get a peep inside the old wagon even." And as Clint was feasting his eyes upon the marvels of the interior of the wagon the relic man remarked to the others, "Don't seem to be quite so forward as most boys."
"He's a good boy, sir," volunteered the blacksmith, "an' it ain't his fault that he's let to run the town. A while back his father took to preachin' 'round and seemed to plum forget that he had a boy. That was after the mother died. Clint's a bright lad, and honest—every hair of him. The elder's just got married again. ”

“ You see, Kirby allers was a gentleman in his tastes, and had a particular liking for birds on toast, and of course [Pg 79] Clint wanted to give him a proper welcome home. We knew just when the boats were likely to come, and Clint was allers ready for a surprise.”
“And he came just when he was least expected,” said George, with a bright smile; “that is the way things always happen in this world. ”

“ Clint stared dumbly, unbelievingly, at the relic man. He had been so often joked by the men of The Corners that he was instantly on the defensive. And so great a stroke of fortune could not possibly come to him! But there was a gravity in the man's voice and face which contradicted this suspicion, and the boy finally stammered, "I'd—I'd like it, Sir.
"You look like an honest boy," continued the man, "an' that's what I want most of all. I'll give you three square meals a day and buy you a good suit of store clothes an' cap an' shoes when you come back in the fall if you stick it out. ”

“ But when the fern was spread, and the gray blankets over, and the firelight ran into all the wharè corners, a restlessness caught Clint, so that he overhauled carefully the nine-by-twelve space that had held Tinlay’s private life.
Such outposts as these tell more of a man than his tongue or his face will give. Besides, it is decreed that each soul must influence other souls directly or indirectly. This was why the personality of Tinlay became blatantly real to Clint very presently. ”

“ But Clint’s no invalid. He’d take right smart killing, an’ all he got was one pill in the leg. Trouble with most of these here bad men is they ain’t efficient. When you lay for Clint, Don, I’d advise you to spill about a pint of lead in him.”
The little man grinned with broken-toothed malevolence at his henchman.
“I don’t aim to lay for Clint,” growled Black. He was not a humorist and he never knew when Prowers’s jokes were loaded with dynamite.
Jake cackled. “O’ course not. Clint, he’s a good citizen if he did kick you off’n the Diamond Bar K once. ”

“ Clint was glad to ride away on his mare. The lonely bridle-path was more companionable than neighbors who wondered whether he would be murdered or a murderer.
As he rode along the trail his indignation began to grow. He asked himself what he had done that any man should want to take his life?
"I'm peaceable!" he exclaimed bitterly. "I neveh harmed any man! I ain' a bad, mean man. But that Lon Campbell, be allus has be'n troublesome. He killed a man! ”

“ You may be sure this was a stroke of luck for Clint just then, and he didn’t like to lose it; but you see he didn’t look very genteel, and he knew his uncle was sharp enough to find it out. He was fat enough, for whiskey never made a living skeleton of him, but it was plain that it wasn’t good health that had made his nose so red, nor fine manners that had given him the cut across his cheek and bruised up his eye. The boys all allowed that he was the hardest-looking chap in the camp, and if his uncle left him his money, it wouldn’t be on the strength of his good countenance! ”

“ It was Tinlay’s weka that came with its shadow before it, and heard Clint making incoherent prayer and breaking into laughter of relief. For a weka is above all things companion to lonely men, by reason of its knowledge that the heavy, powerful mystery of the bush is really just a delicate and transparent joke. And this gives the human much confidence. ”

“ He set off over the stones on his bare brown feet, with his fishing-rod across his shoulder, turning as he went a merry brown face back toward the group on the old dam.
"I wouldn't sell my fish," said Mel, shaking his line gently, "but Clint is always thinking of money."
"He has to," returned Eb; "his folks are awful poor since his father died, you know. But I like him, though, first-rate."
"So do I. He's smart as chain-lightning, too, and he's always ready to help a fellow when he gets stuck on one of those doubled-up, mixed-up, complex, compounded, connected-by-the-word-'of' fractions." ”

“ Now where the dickens are they?"
"The way I figure it," replied Clint thoughtfully, "is that the trolley was a lot farther off than he said it was and that the road turned to the left again after we got off it. One thing is certain, and that is that if we haven't crossed it it must be in front of us somewhere, and the only thing to do is keep on going."
"Until we drop," agreed Amy. "I shall begin and look for a nice comfortable place to drop. Say, we won't get a thing but hard looks when we get back--if ever we do."
"We'll be lucky if we get off with hard looks, I reckon," said Clint gloomily. ”

“ They debated that for some time after they had reached the road, and in the end they decided that the town lay to their left, although, as Clint pointed out, the men in the automobile had gone in the opposite direction.
"They might be going to Thacher," said Amy. "Anyhow, we're bound to get somewhere in time. All I ask of Fortune is a bed and a breakfast; and I could do without the bed, I guess. Somewhere in the world, Clint there are two cups of hot coffee waiting for us. ”

“ You can’t do these two things at one time. I’ll watch for Greevy; you give me Clint’s story to Ricketts. I guess you know I’m feelin’ for you, an’ if I was in your place I’d shoot the man that killed Clint, if it took ten years. I’d have his heart’s blood—all of it. Whether Greevy was in the right or in the wrong, I’d have him—plumb.”
Buckmaster was moved. He gave a fierce exclamation and made a gesture of cruelty. “Clint right or wrong? There ain’t no question of that. My boy wasn’t the kind to be in the wrong. What did he ever do but what was right? ”

“ Run home an' fetch all the clothes an' things you want to take with you—an' don't forget anything you might need. Come back here to the shop and we'll start about five o'clock, just after the last mail is distributed."
Before Clint climbed into the wagon for his grand departure every boy in Coral Corners knew that he was the most enviable of all boys who had ever inhabited the village. Some secretly proposed running away from home and joining the wagon at the fork of the roads by Pigeon Woods. But against all such proposals Clint was adamant. ”

“ The boys shook hands until their arms were lame, and laughed and cheered uproariously; and Clint got leave of absence for the rest of the day, and they all went back to the island again—all but Mel, who had, he said, to go home with the twins. ”

“ But the men of the back-country need not to have coward blood in their hearts. Clint shook himself, and went out from the bush to the free, windy hillside. There he said defiantly to his dog:
“Simple thing, in course. Branches makes a shadder on the floor, an’ Tinlay carves the shadder. The lay o’ the moonlight alters the expression—an’ that’s all there is to’t. Blest if I don’t worry that nose out from the ole shadder myself.”
He felt brave as a man may be when he laid block and knife in the bunk beside him. ”

“ Steve Edwards—no, Steve wouldn't, of course. Tom Hall will, I'll bet. And Roy Draper and Harry Wescott, probably. We ought to get as many of the fellows as we can. I wish you were in that class, Clint."
"I don't. You're a chump to try such a trick, Amy. You'll get pro for sure. Maybe worse. I don't believe Moller can take a joke; he's too haughty."
"Oh, rot! He will take it all right. Anyway, what kick can he have? We fellows have just as much right to——"
"You'll wish you hadn't," said Clint. "See if you don't!" ”

“ It is not wise to ask Clint anything concerning that night; but it is believed on Mindoorie that he passed it with stopped ears, and face hidden against the soft warmness of his dogs.
He rode back at daybreak, carrying his terror in his face and a carved lump of totara in his swag on the saddle bow. He walked into the wharè as the boys sat at tea, unrolled his blankets, and tossed the face with a bump on the table between Walt’s plate and Jack’s.
“I come back,” he said, “’cause that devil is castin’ his reflection all over the wharè, an’ I don’t like it. Burn him, you chaps. ”

“ I don' want no hawd feelin's, bec'ase I'm goin' to marry that gal of your'n, yasseh! I'll shore do hit, even if 1 have to shoot the hull Campbell family easy!"
"I 'low I cayn't help hit. Clint," Campbell exclaimed. "You was plumb reasonable with me, yasseh! Thankee, lad, I'll ride yer mare home. They ain' no hawd feelin's no moh. Tell you' mah I asts her pawdon. I've be'n mighty onmannerly with her."
Steadying the man in the saddle, Clint helped him homeward. When they arrived at Campbell's house the two women were roused from their despair by a shout. ”

“ Do jest what she wants ye to.”
“Clint?” she repeated, questioningly. “Is that your name?”
“Clinton Webb,” I replied.
“Clinton is pretty. You are English?”
“I should say not!” I exclaimed. “American.”
[153] “Oh, yes! I am an English girl; but I have lived in British India most all my life.”
“That’s it, Miss,” I said, knowing that the captain and mate were dying to hear her story. “You tell us all about it. How did you come in that boat? And what vessel was it that was wrecked?”
“We sailed in the Galland, a big steamship, from Calcutta,” said the girl softly. “I was with friends. ”

“ The omission of this stirring lyric from the edition of 1795 I can ascribe only to accident.
ON SIR HENRY CLINTON'S RECALL [158]
The dog that is beat has a right to complain—
Sir Harry returns a disconsolate man,
To the face of his master, the Lord's [159] oil-anointed,
To the country provided for thieves disappointed. ”

“ In a few weeks after this conversation took place, Miss Clinton had found a tenant for her house, and she and Ella had removed to a little town, some forty or fifty miles distant, where they rented two or three rooms in a small house, and Miss Prudence took in sewing. Ella had brought a letter of introduction from her pastor in S—— to Mr. Thomas, the minister, whose preaching she and her aunt now attended; and as soon as they were settled, she called and presented it. Mr. ”

“ Clinch supported himself against the open window, leaning his throbbing head on the cold glass. Shame, mortification, an hysterical half-consciousness of his utter ridiculousness, and yet an odd, undefined terror of something, by turns possessed him. Was he ever before guilty of such perfect folly? Had he ever before made such a spectacle of himself? Was it possible that he, Mr. James Clinch, the coolest head at a late supper,—he, the American, who had repeatedly drunk Frenchmen and Englishmen under the table—could be transformed into a sentimental, stagey idiot by a single glass of wine? ”

“ He knows what hard work is, and has just come out of the woods."
[87]
"But I can't take a boy into my family," continued Mr. Clinch; "I haven't room, and it makes the work too hard for my wife."
"He might board somewhere else," said the captain.
"That indeed. I like the looks of the boy."
"If you can do anything for him, I shall regard it as a favor to me," added my friend.
"I should be very glad to serve you, Captain Davis. I want more help, but a boy isn't of much use. How old are you, Phil?" ”

“ But give me thy solemn pledge, Lord Kintail, that I shall suffer no skaith, and then thou shalt see my face.”
“I swear to thee before this goodly assemblage,” said Kintail, “that whoever thou mayest be, or whatever enemies of thine may be amongst us, thou shalt be skaith-less. Nay, more; for thy brave bearing thou shalt have free assoilzieing from outlawry and all other penalties, be thou whom thou mayest, with one exception alone.”
“Whom dost thou except?” demanded the stranger, eagerly advancing his body, but without unveiling his face.
“Glengarry himself,” said Lord Kintail. ”

“ I do know your heart, Clementina, as it is,—nor do I think it possible that you could change;—still, sometimes—that is for a moment when I call to mind that, by your uncle’s death, as his favourite niece, living with him for so many years, you may soon find yourself in possession of thousands,—and that titled men may lay their coronets at your feet,—then, Clementina—
Clem. Ungenerous and unkind!—Edward, I almost hate you. Is a little money, then, to sway my affections? Shame, Edward, shame on you! Is such your opinion of my constancy? (Weeps.) You must judge me by your own heart. ”

“ Clinch gave me permission, at nine o'clock, to be absent the rest of the day, if necessary. He was curious to know what business I had at the courts, and I told him enough of the story to enable him to understand the situation.
"I was sure that Morgan Blair was getting into bad ways," said Mr. Clinch. "I tell you, Phil, when a young fellow is lazy, and don't take any interest in his business, he is getting into a bad way. All I want to know about a boy is, whether he feels an interest in his business or not. ”

“ Having therefore separated me, Clement, and Niceta and Aquila, he said to those twelve: "I wish you the day after to-morrow to proceed to the Gentiles, and to follow in the footsteps of Simon, that you may inform me of all his proceedings. You will also inquire diligently the sentiments of every one, and announce to them that I shall come to them without delay; and, in short, in all places instruct the Gentiles to expect my coming." ”