Jethro

“ Also, if the marriage was repudiated, Jethro would be justified in resuming the family claim to the leadership.
She seated herself upon the scarlet seat with a gesture of thanks, while the salutations and greetings increased; then she awaited events, thrilled by the weird and pleasant music, with its touches of Eastern fantasy. In spite of herself she was moved, as Romanys, men and women, ran forward in excitement with arms raised towards her as though they meant to strike her, then suddenly stopped short, made obeisance, called a greeting, and ran backwards to their places. ”

“ Linda looked more tiny and wraithlike than ever with the tall, gaunt Jethro on one side of her and the ponderous form of Samuel Gage looming up on the other. They were a strangely assorted trio which through some queer whim of fate had been thrown together. If the cataclysm of War had not scarred the earth their paths may never have crossed. Was there not a western author who once wrote, "Our greatest friends we ofttimes never meet?"
Jethro was in a good mood. He liked the farm. The simplicity of the homestead appealed to him. But it was Linda herself who appealed to him most. ”

“ And Jethro! Although she condemned him, there was something in the situation that appealed to a most reprehensible sense of humor. Cynthia caught herself smiling once or twice, and knew that it was wicked. She excused Jethro, and told herself that, with his lack of training, he could know no better. Then an idea came to her, and the very boldness of it made her grow hot again. She would appeal to him tell him that that power he had over other men could be put to better and finer uses. ”

“ It was thus that Jethro Bass met the supreme crisis of his life. And who shall say he did not meet it squarely and honestly? Few men of finer fibre and more delicate morals would have acquitted themselves as well. That was a Judgment Day for Jethro; and though he knew it not, he spoke through Cynthia to his Maker, confessing his faults freely and humbly, and dwelling on the justness of his punishment; putting not forward any good he may have done ”

“ There it was, tarnished with age, but with that memorable inscription still legible,—"Cynthy, from Jethro"; not Cynthia, but Cynthy. How the years fell away as he read it! He handed it in silence to the storekeeper, and in silence went to the window again. Jethro Bass was a man who could find no outlet for his agony in speech or tears.
"Yes," said Wetherell, "I thought you would have kept it. Dear, dear, how well I remember it! And I remember how I patronized you when you came into the shop. I believed I should live to be something in the world, then. Yes, she loved you, Jethro. ”

“ Of course Jethro had told Samuel Gage what sort of an attitude he wished him to assume. Jethro did not want thanks, nor did he wish Linda to think for a moment she was being helped. If she could be made to believe that she was not poor, that her farm was keeping her, things would not appear quite so gloomy.
"I tell you what I'll do," said Jethro abruptly. "I'll advance you a hundred dollars right now." ”

“ But it's your folks I care about. It ain't you. I've found it all out, Jethro. Things don't al'ays belong to us. Sometimes they belong to them that have gone before; an' half the time we don't know it."
Jethro laid a gentle hand upon her arm. "You're all tired out," he said soothingly. "Now you give up picking over things, and let me hire somebody. I'll be glad to." [Pg 174]
But Dilly withdrew a little from his touch. "You're real good, Jethro," she answered steadily. She had put aside her exaltation, and was her old self, full of common-sense and kindly strength. ”

“ Then Jethro says: “This Pekoe don’t know anythin’. There’s nothin’ he can tell the boy.”
“But he can snoop around and get suspicious,” says the Man With the Black Gloves, “and he’s no man to fool with—not if he’s been a partner of Big Rock Armitage.”
“He wasn’t sich a tough proposition to handle,” says Jethro. “I done it alone.”
“Huh!” says the Man.
“We might go and see what we kin git out of him,” says Jethro.
“All right,” says the Man, and up they got and went tramping up the stairs right over our heads.
“N-n-now,” whispered Mark, and out he ducked and headed for the back of the house. ”

“ The room grew dark as she sat, stooping forward, her chin in her hands. The wind rose, and lapped like rising waves about the lonely house. She put more coal on the fire, feeling the intense cold of the night even there, in the nest of carpets, thick curtains, and cushions.
Suddenly she heard muffled feet on the red, newly-spread gravel outside. No wheels, but the steady, heavy tramping of feet! She heard voices, the rustic, slow voices of the farm men. There was a momentary silence: then Jethro spoke. ”

“ They recognized the touch of fashion and of form, of a worldly education, of a convention which lifted her away from the tan and the caravan, from the everlasting itinerary. They had not had Jethro's experiences in fashionable hotels of Europe, at midnight parties, at gay suppers, at garish dances, where Gorgio ladies answered the amorous looks of the ambitious Romany with the fiddle at his chin. Because these young Romanys knew they dare not aspire, they were resentful; but Jethro, the head of the rival family and the son of the dead claimant to the headship, had not such compulsory modesty. ”

“ I knew that you were not mixed up in politics, but I also knew that you were an intimate friend of Jethro's, and I thought that you had been let into the secret of the woodchuck session. I don't defend the game of politics as it is played, Mr. Wetherell, but all of us who are friends of Jethro's are generally willing to lend a hand in any little manoeuvre that is going on, and have a practical joke when we can. ”

“ Moses, hot-headed youth, squandered another coin for the thrilling experience of tearing over the bare earth holding in Jethro by the reins, and using words of sinister meaning to the unwieldy monster. The monkey swayed painfully from the back of the excited Jethro. ”

“ Jethro Bass was dethroned in Coniston—discredited in his own town!
And where was Jethro? Did his heart ache, did he bow his head as he thought of that supremacy, so hardly won, so superbly held, gone forever? Many were the curious eyes on the tannery house that day, and for days after, but its owner gave no signs of concern. He read and thought and chopped wood in the tannery shed as usual. Never, I believe, did man, shorn of power, accept his lot more quietly. His struggle was over, his battle was fought, a greater peace than he had ever thought to hope for was won. ”

“ Pike was carrying away the dishes, Dilly called Jethro softly to one side.
"You come out in the orchard. I want to speak to you."
Her voice thrilled with something like the gladness of confidence, and Jethro's own face brightened. Dilly read that vivid anticipation, and caught her breath. Though she knew it now, the old charm would never be quite gone. She took his hand and drew him forward. She seemed like a child, unaffected and not afraid. Out in the path, under the oldest tree of all, she dropped his hand and faced him.
"Jethro," she said, "we can't do it. We can't get married." ”

“ Jethro said, with an unnatural shining in his eyes, his voice broken in its passion. "You think you can come it over me with your Gorgio talk and the clever things you've learned in the Gorgio world. You try to look down on me. I'm as well born or as ill born as you. The only difference between us is the way you dress, the way you live and use your tongue. All that belongs to the life of the cities. Anyone can learn it. Anyone well born like you and me, with a little practice, can talk like Gorgio dukes and earls. ”

“ Is he—Jethro, you know—waiting outside? The old fellow must look odd in a frock-coat. Does he lift each foot along the pavement, as if he were walking through stubble? If he’s up, I can give him a good tip. The new company——”
“The ruby mine. I know. I saw your name—that is why I came.”
“Does he want an investment?”
She clasped her hands with an air of hopeless, helpless tragedy.
“You men are all alike. Can’t you see an inch before your nose? Do you think I should come up here about rubies? Oh! can’t you see it on my face? Jethro was just as bad; he made me tell him everything.” ”

“ There is no politician of a certain age in the state who does not remember her walking, clad in dragon-fly colors, through the streets of the capital on Jethro's arm, or descending the stairs of the Pelican House to supper. None of Jethro's detractors may say that he ever failed in kindness to her, and he loved her as much as was in his heart to love any woman after Cynthia Ware. ”

“ She was well enough aware of the claims of Jethro’s dead father to the leadership, abandoned for three thousand pounds and marriage with herself; and she was also aware that while her father’s mysterious isolation might possibly have developed a reverence for him, yet active pressure and calumny might well have done its work. ”

“ I'm beginning to look like an old man; but that milk-and-crackers diet seems to keep you young, Jethro. I'll fix it for to-morrow afternoon.”
“W-what time—two?”
“Well, I'll fix it for two to-morrow afternoon. I never could understand you, Jethro; you don't do things like other men. Do I smell gunpowder? What's up now—what do you want to see Grant about?”
Jethro cast his eye around the corridor, where a few men were taking their ease after supper, and looked at the senator mysteriously. ”

“ Jethro and Amuba will soon decide what is best to be done. Are there any others in the house?”
“There is one other man,” Ruth replied, “and an old woman; I think the other man is at the door with the chariot.”
“I had better tell Jethro,” Chebron said, and he again went into the room and told Jethro what he had heard.
“We will seize the woman first,” Jethro said, “and then go out round the house and come down from the other way upon the chariot. The man will have heard the outcry; and if we came suddenly out of the door, might leap into the chariot and drive off before we could overtake him. ”

“ To do Jethro's importance absolute justice, he did inspire fear among his contemporaries, and young men and women did not say much to his face; what they did say gave them little satisfaction. Grim Deacon Ira stopped him as he was going to buy hides, and would have prayed over him if Jethro had waited; dear Aunt Lucy did pray, but in private. In six days orthodox Coniston came to the conclusion that this ninety and ninth soul were better left to her who had snatched it, Cynthia Ware. ”

“ It is to them, Mysa, far more than to me that you owe your rescue. I may know more of the learning of our people, but I have none of the readiness and coolness of Amuba, while Jethro is as prudent as he is brave. ”

“ Jethro is our leader and guardian, alike by the will of our father and because he is older and wiser than any of us. Amuba is as my elder brother, being stronger and braver and more accustomed to danger than I; while you and Mysa are sisters, inasmuch as you are both exiled from your own land, and are friendless, save for each other and us. ”

“ William Wetherell ventured to ask Jethro who the man was.
“N-name's Lovejoy,” said Jethro.
“Lovejoy!” ejaculated the storekeeper, thinking of what Mr. Merrill had told him of the opponents of the Truro Franchise Bill. “President of the 'Northwestern' Railroad?”
Jethro gave his friend a shrewd look.
“G-gettin' posted—hain't you, Will?” he said.
“Is she going to marry that old man?” asked Cynthia.
Jethro smiled a little. “G-guess not,” said he, “g-guess not, if the old man can help it. Nobody's married him yet, and hain't likely to.” ”

“ Brampton, as we know, was famous for its Fourth of July celebrations. Not neglecting to let it be known that Jethro had sent for him, Jake hurried off through the summer twilight to the tannery house, bowed ceremoniously to Cynthia under the butternut tree, and discovered Jethro behind the shed. It was usually Jethro's custom to allow the other man to begin the conversation, no matter how trivial the subject—a method which had commended itself to Mr. Bixby and other minor politicians who copied him. And usually the other man played directly into Jethro's hands. ”

“ She went across the common in the March sun and wind. Her heart and feet danced, but her face was like the changing sky. Forget! She must forget. She was to marry Jethro. It was so easy to say forget, so difficult to do it. Once she stopped, her eyes strained in the direction of London—far away over moor and hill and sleek pasture. She groaned aloud. She knew that she would give it all—greenhouse, Battlesden, big, fond man with the bulging bag of sovereigns—for one touch on the mouth from one other man. He was still in prison, still only a number behind the high wall. ”

“ Jethro looked Mark over and laughed right out. Not the kind of laugh a fellow likes, but a noisy, bossy kind of a laugh. “You look like you gen’ally got plenty,” says he.
“I do,” says Mark, short as could be, because he don’t like to have folks talking about his weight. Then he winked at Jethro and got him off to one side.
“Say,” he says, “that kid’s goin’ to slip away s-s-sure,” says he, “if he hain’t watched. You can’t do it right, but us fellers can. What you say to givin’ us a job guardin’ him? We’ll see he’s kept here till it’s time for him to go somewheres else.” ”