Piegan

“ Lewis’ mother was a young woman, the Flatheads and Piegans had a fight in the little valley below, in which the Flatheads came out victorious.131 Eight of the Piegans fled to the top of this mountain, and there fortified themselves by building breastworks with stones and pitch pine logs. They held the fort for one day and a night, but the Flatheads greatly outnumbered them, and they were overpowered and killed; not one escaped. Many years afterwards Mr. Lewis and Mr. Morgan, his neighbor, found the skull of one of those Indians and brought it home. ”

“ Benderby wouldn’t allow Pegeen to help with the dishes.
“Other nights, maybe, if you want to, but not to-night,” she insisted. So, as the afterglow faded and the stars came out to look at a blithe new moon Archibald and Peg sat once more on their familiar doorstep. For a time they were both silent, listening to the night noises, watching the play of moonlight and starlight across the meadow and the clutching shadows on the wood’s edge.
“I wonder if Ezra took his medicine after supper,” Pegeen said suddenly. “I’d most forgotten about him. Being terribly happy’s sort of selfish, isn’t it?” ”

“ I love them to death and it’s terribly noble to go off and not get married and wear scoop bonnets and keep your floors as white as chalk, but I guess I’m not noble inside—’n’ anyway, if all the women went off and were holy and clean who’d see to the dirty and unholy folks?”
“Peggy,” said Archibald, earnestly, urgently, “if you should ever feel an attack of cleanly holiness coming on—the noble kind—fight it off. Take something for it. We unholy dirty sinners need you.”
“Don’t worry.” Pegeen’s tone was reassuring. ”

“ With a little cry of pity, Pegeen ran toward him, but Archibald caught her in his arms and lifting her bodily, carried her into the next room.
“Listen, Peg,” he said quietly, as he put her down. “The man has fever. There’s no telling what the disease is. I can’t have you taking chances. You can help most by getting on Zip and riding down to Miss Moran’s to telephone for Doctor Fullerton. Tell him what’s wrong and that I want him at once. Then ask Miss Moran for some old linen she can spare and some soap and bring them to me.” ”

“ The Potters were so shiftless. You may be thankful that your artist ways earned you a reputation for shiftlessness here in the Valley. You’d never have had Peggy if you had seemed capable of taking care of yourself.”
She made a list of things for Pegeen’s outfit—necessaries that began where dresses and aprons ended, and she tried hard to reconcile consideration for Archibald’s purse with zeal for Pegeen’s welfare, conscientiously cutting down first extravagant flights of imagination regarding underwear and stockings and then soaring recklessly into the realm of superfluities after a parasol. ”

“ Archibald had said that he would come back to watch them bloom; but he had said that before Richard Meredith’s coming, and back in the darkest pigeonhole of Pegeen’s mind was a suspicion that she and Wiggles and Spunky and Mrs. Benderby and the horses and the neighbors and the garden all added together would never be able to make him happy, with Nora Moran away. She would not admit to herself in the daytime that the suspicion was there; but sometimes when she happened to waken in the night, she would take it out and cry over it a little, very quietly. ”

“ Frisbie’s egg money, and in Bill Briggs’ habits and in Ezra Watts’ bad reputation. I’m thirsting to meet Ginsy Shalloway, and I’m Mrs. Neal’s humble admirer. What’s more, I’ve an amazing desire to make myself solid with them all. Queer, isn’t it? I suppose it’s mostly Pegeen—Pegeen and you. You two make a fascinating sort of talisman of human sympathy. Along came gray days and stupid people. You rub your magic ring—and the world’s an interesting place, and living in it is glorious business. Makes a chap feel like humping himself and going shopping for magic rings. ”

“ Archibald found Pegeen fairly dancing with eagerness and impatience on the doorstep. “Oh, my stars, I’m so glad it isn’t catching,” she said, darting past him into the sick room. “I couldn’t have stood it not to be able to see him. There’s such a splendid lot to do. It’s awful when there isn’t anything you can do but sit around and wait. This is the very best chance I ever had.”
“Well, you keep the fire roaring in the kitchen,” ordered the doctor, “and warm some of those towels and the blanket for us and see that there’s plenty of hot water. ”

“ Once when a baby’s hand had curled round his finger, he had said to himself that neighboring was not the last word, that a man’s own meant more; but, during those Summer days when Pegeen and he went up and down the Valley, knocking at the doors of hearts and lives, he came to realize dimly that a man’s own reaches out beyond the doors of his home and that if he follows it to the soul heights and the love limits, he will find himself, walking there with the brotherhood of Man. ”

“ The gods have spoken, saying: ‘O Imbaun, Our prophet, it is as the people believe whose wisdom hath discovered the secret of the gods, and the people when they die shall come to Pegana, and there live with the gods, and there have pleasure without toil. And Pegana is a place all white with the peaks of mountains, on each of them a god, and the people shall lie upon the slopes of the mountains each under the god that he hath worshipped most when his lot was in the Worlds. ”

“ His voice rang hard, and Pegeen shot a swift, surprised look at him.
“Well, it ought to,” she said soberly. “That’s what it’s really for—except when people you love get sick or die—or are bad. ’N’ if they’re bad that’s because they aren’t loving. She says if you love hard enough you just naturally make the world smiley—only you have to be sure it’s the real, right love, the kind of love God has. She’s the funniest thing. She talks about God right out, as if He were folks, ’n’ as if He and she had beautiful times together—like my measles. ”

“ It’s a sort of a smile that goes with her like the words to a tune. ’N’ her hair’s all bright ’n’ ripply ’n’ smiley, ’n’ she walks so light, ’n’ she just has a way with her. When she comes into a room you feel as if birds had begun singing there.”
Archibald leaned back in his chair and looked at the slip of a girl, with the thin, expressive face in which now adoration glowed warmly.
“Pegeen,” he said, with conviction, “when you aren’t taking care of somebody, you write poetry?” ”

“ The Valley has given me more than I ever can pay; and, if you like Neighborhood House, I’m very happy; for I’ve had a hand in it. Miss Moran and Mr. Meredith and Dr. Fullerton and I have worked together to make the thing possible; but, though Miss Moran started me on the right track, it was Peggy O’Neill who taught me to neighbor. Neighborhood House came out of Pegeen’s heart. If you must thank somebody, thank her.”
“Pegeen! Pegeen! Peggy! Peg!” The whole crowd was calling—men, boys, women, girls—calling for Pegeen. ”

“ A memory of some duty faintly stirred Piang’s subconsciousness, and his senses tried to respond to the call. Bright and intense grew the twin fires. One instant they seemed as minute as fireflies, the next as large as moons. [146] Yes, the tree was alive; it was moving. A giant creeper was swaying toward him, would grasp him in its toils.
“Lē lē li li!” persistently the call was repeated. “Lē lē li li!” A duty! What was it? Charm boy? Who was charm boy? Involuntarily Piang’s hand sought the charm on his breast and grasped it. He was saved! ”

“ Under the battered old straw hat whose rose-wreathed successor was waiting in Pittsfield for Pegeen’s coming, the expressive face was all aflame with excitement and happiness.
Archibald looked down into the dark blue eyes that were well-springs of bubbling joy, and felt oddly young himself.
“Isn’t it splendid,” the small girl said breathlessly—“going off on an adventure this way, just you and me in a buggy. I’ve been twice before, but in a wagon both times. That was nice too, but a buggy’s so much eleganter. I do hope they’ll all see us. Mrs. Benderby’s washing at the Pratts’ to-day. ”

“ If you want to see discipline go to Division Head-quarters. Why old Pigey is prancing around like a steed at a muster,—crazy! absolutely crazy! His cocked hat is more crooked than ever, and the knot of his muffler is at the back of his neck, and the ends flying like wings. Just a few minutes ago he stopped suddenly while on a canter, right by one of my men, lying along the road-side, that he had made drunk, and chuckled and laughed, and lolled from side to side in his saddle, and then at a canter again rode to another one and went through the same performance. ”

“ Archibald, still holding Pegeen’s hand, appealed to a stately and suave floorwalker.
“I want to do some shopping for this young lady,” he explained—“a good deal of shopping, and I’m hopelessly incapable. Now you must have some woman about the place who could take us in hand—sort of advisory committee, pilot, first-aid rôle, some one with good sense and good taste. We’re strong on taste ourselves but we’re not so sure of our sense, eh, Peg?” ”

“ Neal.
“She’ll plow lots better,”—Pegeen was sure of it “She’ll have something to remember and something to look forward to—’cause anything that’s happened once could happen again. Things like plowing and washing dishes are fun if something has happened and something’s going to happen. Good night, everybody. I s’pose I don’t really need my parasol open but I do love to carry it that way.”
She and Archibald went away up the meadow path, arms full of packages, hearts full of content. ”

“ Something tugged suddenly at Archibald’s heartstrings. Life was too hard for women.
“Yes; you and I couldn’t do without Pegeen,” he said. The friendly warmth of his voice affected the tired little woman as had the warm strength of his hand-clasp. There was something about Peg’s Mr. Archibald, she admitted to herself—something that cheered one up a bit. That “you and I” had a folksy sort of ring. He wasn’t stuck up if he did come from New York.
She smiled in the dark and though he could not see the smile he heard it in her voice. ”

“ They were occupying their favorite seat on the doorstep now. Pegeen’s elbows were on her knees, her hands cupping her chin, her eyes gazing out across the Valley.
“What do you think souls look like, Mr. Archibald?” she asked suddenly.
Archibald considered the subject and acknowledged that he had no theories on it.
“Well, I’ve thought about it lots,” Peg said cheerfully. Her discussions of life, death, and immortality were always imperturbably cheerful. Nothing morbid touched her. Life was a fact and death was a fact and immortality was a fact. ”

“ Pegu (6) , a town of Lower Burma, in the province and on the river of the same name, 46 m. NE. of Rangoon, is a very ancient city; the province (1,162) is a rice-growing country, with great teak forests on the mountain slopes.
Pei-ho, a river of North China, 350 miles long; formed by the junction of four other rivers, on the chief of which stands Pekin; has a short navigable course south-eastward to the Gulf of Pechili, where it is defended by the forts of Taku.
Peirce, Benjamin, American mathematician and astronomer, born in Massachusetts, U.S. ”

“ There were days when wisdom did not wear the look of a virtue; and this afternoon, when Pegeen was busy with housework and even Wiggles had wandered away on important business of his own, the man who had been trying to be contented gave up trying and set out to keep tryst with memory, beside a hilltop well, where on a summer day a witch had sat, smiling and weaving spells. ”

“ Piang defiantly bared his breast, exposing the sacred charm suspended from his necklace of crocodile teeth. There was moaning in the crowd, sobs of excitement, and protests of impatience, but every head remained lowered until the august relic was again covered. Piang began to chant in a high, nasal voice, and the others rose and joined in creating a weird, monotonous drawl. Like a statue stood the boy, holding the branch high above his head while they circled round and round him. Faster, faster they whirled ”

“ Only the roses that in highest Pegana have achieved their prime shall shed their petals in showers at thy feet, and only far away on the forgotten earth shall voices drift up to thee that cheered thee in thy childhood about the gardens of thy youth. And if thou sighest for any memory of earth because thou hearest unforgotten voices, then will the gods send messengers on wings to soothe thee in Pegana, saying to them: “There one sigheth who hath remembered Earth.” ”

“ Meredith looked at her quickly and the tenderness in his face was not all for Pegeen.
“Yes,” he agreed, “and she’ll love her way straight through the hurt. I can’t believe that even life can be unrelentingly hard to Pegeen. Life isn’t often unrelentingly hard.” ”

“ Archibald asked. They had reached the shack now and he dropped down on the doorstep and filled his pipe. Pegeen sat down beside him, after carefully turning up the abbreviated skirt of her new dress.
“No use dirtying it any faster than I have to,” she explained. “Every washing takes it out of them even when they aren’t pink. No, I never had a garden—what you’d call a real garden. We never had much garden. Sometimes Dad would put in corn or potatoes but mostly he forgot, and if he didn’t forget them, he did after he’d put them in, and I didn’t have much time to take care of them. ”

“ You just can’t slump down when Peg’s boosting you. Even thinking about her’s better than medicine. Some days when I ain’t my best and the work don’t go good, I hang on to the thought of Peg as if ’twas a patent life-preserver. Funny, ain’t it—a little scrap of a big-eyed thing like her! She ain’t exactly pretty, Peg ain’t, but I think the angels must be some like her.”
“I shouldn’t wonder,” Archibald agreed. He could understand why Pegeen had felt that she must go over and see to Mrs. ”