Mrs. Macy

“ Lathrop, tellin' it all to you does n't matter so much, but to hear Mrs. Macy tell it makes you wonder if it's worth while to try an' leave a man as you can't live with. Seems to me it'd be easier to live with him. Mrs. Macy says as she met Mr. Drake several times [Pg 83] herself on his bicycle an' he looked most bloomin'. No one need be sorry for him, an' not many is sorry for Judy. But Mrs. Macy says there's only one person as all Meadville's sorry for, an' that's Busby Bell. ”

“ I wasn't goin' to wash 'cause I only had a nightgown 'n' two aprons, 'n' the currants was ripe 'n' I'd gone down to get my sugar, 'n' Johnny come kitin' up fr'm the station, 'n' Mrs. Macy 'n' me didn't put on no airs but just kited right after him. Mrs. Macy always says she learned to see the sense in Bible miracles that day, f'r she had n't run in years then, 'n' she's walked with a stick ever since, but she run that day, 'n' Johnny bein' tired 'n' Mrs. Macy 'n' me fresh—she was a little fresher 'n me f'r I 'd been talkin'—we all three come in on Mr. Shores together. ”

“ A woman as sleeps in a bed as Hiram must have played leap-frog over all his life, from the feel of the springs, and pours out of a pitcher as has got a chip out of the tip of its nose, aint in no mood to mince nothing. I never was one to mince and I never will be—not now and not never. Mincing is for them as aint got it in them to speak their minds freely, and my mind is a thing that’s made to be free and not a slave.”
“Well, really, Susan,” expostulated Mrs. Macy, “what ever—”
“Don’t interrupt me, Mrs. Macy. I’m full of goodness knows what, but whatever it is I’m too full of it for comfort. ”

“ Macy says she drew the line at cot-pokin' when the cot was all she'd have to sleep on herself, and in the end they poked quilts up, an' pillows an' doughnuts an' cider an' blankets, an' Hiram made a bed on the floor an' they all got to sleep about three o'clock. [Pg 628]
"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, what do you think? What do you think? They was so awful tired that none of 'em woke till Mrs. Sperrit come at eleven next day to take 'em to the weddin'! Mrs. Macy says she hopes she'll be put forward all her back-slidin's if she ever gets such a start again. ”

“ I don't say as it wasn't natural that your walls should go up first, Jathrop being your son, and, now that he's rich, no more to me than a benefactor—"
"Oh, Susan!" expostulated Mrs. Macy.
"That's what he is, Mrs. Macy; he's my benefactor, and I can't escape if I want to. You may tend a man's mother ten years, day and night, house cleanings and cistern cleanings, moths and the well froze up, and if the man comes back rich, he's your benefactor."
"Susan!" cried Mrs. Lathrop, "you—"
"Don't deny it, Mrs. Lathrop; it's the truth. ”

“ Macy. “Oh, saint and sinners preserve us! Oh, Susan, where shall we go?”
But Susan Clegg stood as if paralyzed, staring straight at the funnel-shaped cloud.
Gran’ma Mullins started for her own house; Mrs. Lathrop sprang up and clasped the piazza post nearest; Mrs. Macy grabbed her skirts up both sides and faced the cyclone just as she had once faced a cow.
The funnel-shaped cloud came sweeping towards them; the town was between, and a darkness and a mighty roar arose; buildings seemed falling; the din was terrible.
“I knew it,” said Susan, grimly. “It is a cyclone!” ”

“ When a man's out of your sight, you've always got to wonder, and most of the time that's all in the world you can do about a man. Now Mrs. Macy's perfectly independent, she can go where she pleases and come down when she pleases, and she hasn't got to tell what she saw unless she wants to. Mrs. Brown says she ain't never been nowhere. It's plain to be seen as Mrs. Brown's envying Mrs. Macy her trip."
"But why—?" began Gran'ma Mullins with great determination.
"That's just it," replied Susan promptly. ”

“ Well, Mrs. Lathrop, you can maybe understand as Mrs. Macy was just about plum paralyzed at that! Her story is as she just stood afore him with her mouth open like a Jack-o'-lantern's, wonderin' what under the sun she was goin' to be asked to remember next, an' when he said that was all, an' for her just to simply tear up the paper, she forgot all about Luther Stott's wife on the back an' tore up the paper. ”

“ Macy went on, her eyes becoming quite globular under the severe stress of her curiosity, "do you suppose anybody married 'em, or did he just buy her for beads?"
"I don't know," said Susan, rocking severely back and forth, "I don't know a tall. You must ask some one wiser than me what a white man does about a Chinese when he wants her to cook for him. You ought to have seen her in my kitchen, Mrs. Macy; she [Pg 37] walked straight to my rack of pans and took down just whatever she fancied. ”

“ Everything’s so upset and off the track it’s no use even trying to think. My walls is fell into my cistern and Mrs. Macy’s roof is sitting on the ground beside her house, yet. The insurance men has sealed up Gran’ma Mullins’ house and they wouldn’t leave the hen-house open till I signed a affidavit on behalf of the hens and released ’em from all claims. Mr. Dill said they tried to seal up his cow; they’ve got Mr. Kimball’s dried apple-machine tied with a rope. It’s awful. ”

“ Lathrop looked wide-eyed and alarmed.
“But now—” Gran’ma Mullins asked.
“I’ve been all over the place,” Susan continued. “I didn’t understand fully what was up when I scurried off to try and get those men to put the roof back on Mrs. Macy’s house, but I know it all now. It’s no use trying to get anybody to do nothing now—the whole town’s upside down and inside out. I never see nothing like it. And the insurance men has got it laid down flat as nobody can’t touch nothing till it’s settled whether it’s a cyclone or a tornado. ”

“ Macy says it's all most upsettin'. She says she never lived through nothin' like it afore. Judy's cross 'cause she can't go out an' meet Busby without runnin' the risk of meetin' Mr. Drake an' losin' all the time she's put in so far bein' deserted. [Pg 82] An' then there's a many things as a outsider never would know about or even guess at unless they've lived right in the house with a real live divorce. Mrs. Macy says as Martha Hack, as does the washin' for 'em all, is forever forgettin' an' sendin' Judy's wash home with Mr. Drake's just as if they was still completely married. ”

“ It does beat all, Mrs. Lathrop, how a woman [Pg 154] of Mrs. Macy's sense, with a income that's only a little too small to get along on, can want to marry any man again. But she seems kind of crazy on the idea, an' if it ain't Mr. Dill, it's goin' to be Dr. Carter, or bu'st, with her. She says she went to his office just to let him know she was in Meadville, an' then she see him on the street, an' then she went to his office again to ask him his real opinion of Mrs. Kitts, an' then just before she left she went to his office again to let him know as she was goin' to come back here. ”

“ Lathrop, when they next met.
"No—I asked, but not a soul knew. We haven't got any man in town as it could possibly be. They was all discussing it, too. Mrs. Macy and Mrs. Fisher is really going to town to see 'Liza Em'ly and take up their ideas to talk over. Mrs. Macy is putting her ideas down on a piece of paper, so as to be sure she has 'em with her. Mrs. Fisher's keeping hers in her head, for she says if she lost them, anybody might write her book. They think they'll go Tuesday. ”

“ Gran'ma Mullins did n't remember much about him then, 'cause she got married along about that time, 'n' she 's always said that them who gets married don't need nothin' else to do for one while; but Mrs. Macy said Rufus was one o' the most superior young men as Mrs. Kitts ever see. She said as old Mr. Tilley took him right into the heart 'n' soul o' his drug-store jus' because his mother was his cousin, 'n' even then the general feelin' was as he was way above the business. Mrs. Macy said as Mrs. Kitts said she 'd never forget goin' in one day for some salts 'n' finding Rufus all alone. ”

“ You'd know he was Jathrop Lathrop's child just by the way he sleeps. You remember what a one Jathrop always was for sleeping. I don't know as I remember Jathrop's ever being awake till he was fairly grown. Whatever you set him at always just made him more sleepy. You know yourself, Mrs. Macy, as he wouldn't be no grasshopper with Mrs. Lathrop for his mother, but a cocoon is a comet beside what Jathrop Lathrop always was. I don't know whether he's rich or not, but I do know that heathen Chinee is his son, and I know it just by the way he sleeps. ”

“ Macy wa'n't wastin' no time or words on the cow. She was walkin' 's fast 's she could along to where the nearest noise was comin' from.
"First she found Mr. Jilkins sittin' on a stump pickin' parasol out o' himself 'n' swearin' in a way 's Mrs. Macy hopes to be spared hereafter. While she was jus' bridge side o' him, Mrs. Jilkins come scramblin' up out o' the ditch madder 'n sixty-five hornets. Seems she 'd got most to the top twice, 'n' it was so slippery 't she'd slid clean back to the bottom again. Mrs. ”

“ Leslie nodded. “Frankly, Marjorie, that New York freshie crowd bores me silly. So does Jewel Marie, at times. But she’s of the people, all democrat underneath her ridiculous idea of caste. I can see where I’m going to run into trouble if I don’t watch my step while trying to win over a bunch of girls that she’s down on. Just the same, Mrs. Macy,” Leslie purposely took on Jerry’s matter-of-fact tone, “it will have to be done. Yes siree; it will have to be done, and it’s up to Cairns II to tackle it, and get away with it.” ”

“ Macy should be found naturally heightened the interest. Susan was much wrought up.
“Well, Mrs. Lathrop,” she said on the afternoon of the third day, as she came into the hotel room where Jathrop’s mother was now equal to her usual vigorous exercise in her newly mended old-gold-plush, stationary rocker—“Well, Mrs. Lathrop, you may well be grateful as Jathrop has got money enough for us to be living here, for the living of the community is getting to be no living a tall.”
Gran’ma Mullins, still in bed, turned herself about and manifested a vivid interest. ”

“ He says too as only to see Henry Ward Beecher tryin' to pour through a funnel when any member o' the Sweet family is walkin' by on the other side of the square is enough to make him as owns what's bein' spilt wish as Henry Ward Beecher's father had gone unrequited too. Mrs. Macy come in while we was talkin' an' she said it was too bad as Emma wasn't smarter, 'cause if Emma was smarter Henry Ward Beecher'd jus' suit her. Mrs. Macy says the trouble is as Emma's too smart to be willin' to marry a fool an' not quite smart enough to be willin' to. ”

“ Lathrop.
"I tell you, they can't," said Susan; "they want to bad enough, but they can't do it. Mrs. Kitts is too smart for that. She keeps her eagle eye on it awake, an' her whole hand on the little string when she's asleep, an' drums 'em up to know if the clock is really right, or if she feels anyways disposed to smell of cologne. Some nights she rolls on the string in her sleep, an' then the bell wakes her along with the rest of 'em, which Mrs. Macy says is a-doin' more aggravatin' to the Lupeys [Pg 153] than any words can do justice to. Mrs. Macy says as she really does believe that if Mrs. ”

“ Baker. At last, however, he acted, having concluded, as I supposed, that there was little chance of getting Mr. Wallet back. There was some show of letting the men choose, but it amounted to nothing. Macy was made fifth mate, and the other mates moved up a peg, so that Mr. Brown was second mate. That pleased me, and the appointment of Macy pleased Peter, for he said that there was not a better man on the ship. I agreed with him in that. Macy was one of the finest specimens of man I have ever seen. ”

“ Macy up 'n' proposed 't they put all but the baby in a sugar-bowl 'n' shake 'em up 'n' draw.
"Well, we did, 'n' it was 'xcitin', I c'n tell you, 'n' I wish you'd been there to see their faces. Mrs. Macy drew first, seein' 't it was her plan, 'n' she was awful put out over gettin' Henry Ward Beecher. Seems she was countin' on using her trundle-bed, 'n' she said right flat out 't she must use her trundle-bed, 'n' so she jus' up 'n' put Henry Ward Beecher right straight back in the sugar-bowl. Mrs. ”

“ But you ought to know by now that I am not a man to be trifled with; no man, let alone a woman, is going to set a course for Macy O’Shea to steer by. And, to come to the point at once, I want you to understand that Carl Ristow’s daughter is coming here. ”

“ Not that I don't feel kindly disposed towards Gran'ma Mullins, but I 'm pretty tired hearin' her tale o' woe. Other folks' troubles is generally more interestin' to other folks than they are to me, and besides, if it really comes to talkin' of troubles, nobody ain't got no more to talk about than I have myself. This money question is nippin' me sharper in the calves every day, and when Mrs. Macy told me yesterday as her steps was givin' out I felt like sittin' down on 'em when they done it. ”

“ On the dock three smiling-faced young people awaited Hal and Marjorie. The happiness which Jerry Macy, Constance and Lawrence Armitage felt over the beautiful culmination of Marjorie’s and Hal’s comradeship was as deep and abiding in its own way as was the love between the newly betrothed pair. ”

“ Every one see the sense o' that, 'n' so Mrs. Macy 's app'inted herself to go 'n' look the house over to-morrow mornin'. I must say 't 'f she don't find them ear-muffs the c'mmunity 'll be pretty blue to-morrow night. No one knew how fond they was of the minister until they begin to find out what them thirteen childern come to when you add 'em all up separately. I d'n' know's I ever was so glad of anythin' in my life 's I am that I drew No. 14 out o' Mrs. Craig's sugar-bowl. Fate 's a strange thing when you look it under 'n' over 'n' hind end to, Mrs. Lathrop,—there was me drawin' No. ”