Rube

“ She was sitting by the dining-room window; it was open, and a pitcher of wild phlox and pink-and-white wake-robins stood in it. While they sat there they saw Uncle Rube, who lives over on the hillside, coming along the crooked path with a basket on his arm. His head was down, and he was thinking so intently that he did not hear the steps behind him of his young dog, Stephen.
Now, Rube means to make the best dog in the world of Stephen—the playful little puppy!—and he never permits him to follow him anywhere unless by special invitation. ”

“ Things is gettin' too public around Rube's house to suit us, an', besides, we don't think he's the friend to us that he pertends to be; so we're goin' to take to the bresh, an' there we're goin' to stay. ”

“ Ruby was as good a horse as anybody had in the “camps,” and he might as well take a hand in the games. I told him I had no objection to his being run, if he could find a suitable boy, but that both he and I were too heavy for race-riding.
“I don’t weigh only about a hundred and a half,” said the ambitious man.
“Well, suppose you don’t, that is ten pounds too much.”
“I reckon a man can ride ten pound lighter ’n he is if he knows how to ride; anyhow, if Rube can’t skin anything around here, I don’t know nothin’ about horses.”
“Ike, did you ever run that horse?” ”

“ He’s always been like what he is now. Jest quiet an’ slow. I came nigh marryin’ a feller who’s got a swell horse ranch way up in Canada, through Rube bein’ slow. Guess Rube was the man for me, though, all through. But, you see, I couldn’t ask him to marry me. Mussy on us, he was slow!”
“Did you have to help him out, Ma?” 121
“Help him? Did you ever know a gal who didn’t help her ’beau’ out? Boy, when a gal gets fixed on a man he’s got a job if he’s goin’ to get clear. Unless he’s like my Rube—ter’ble slow.”
“That’s how you’re sizin’ me now,” said Seth, with a short laugh. ”

“ A Stralsund man shot blind and large, and a warlock Finn was he,
And he hit Tom Hall with a bursting ball a hand's-breadth over the knee.
Tom Hall caught hold by the topping-lift, and sat him down with an oath,
"You'll wait a little, Rube," he said, "the Devil has called for both.
The Devil is driving both this tide, and the killing-grounds are close,
And we'll go up to the Wrath of God as the holluschickie goes.
O men, put back your guns again and lay your rifles by,
We've fought our fight, and the best are down. ”

“ From what I had seen in the lean-to shelter, from what I knew of Ruben, and from what I had heard of old Henry Deblore, I judged it to be unlikely that the one-eyed man, the fool and tool, would take any liberties, with the scarred man, the killer, his master, so long as the latter had a spark of life left in him or a gleam in his devilish eyes. But perhaps Ruben was not going treasure-digging. Perhaps the rusty pick and spade were for the excavation of a grave. ”

“ That horse has all the alertness of the trained dogs and is just as eager in overcoming brute force as men are. In fact we are so fascinated with his beauty and intelligence that the cruel sport is almost forgotten in our interest in him and his master.
Rubens painted a number of hunting scenes, and always he manages the hunt with the skill of a master. The confusion of the rough-and-tumble fight between the wild beasts and the horses, dogs, and men in Rubens' pictures seems to untangle itself under his glorious color and skilful arrangement. This is a picture you must see. ”

“ Rainbows, showers, partial gleams of sunshine, moonlight, are the means with which Rubens produces his most gorgeous and enchanting effects: there are neither rainbows, nor showers, nor sudden bursts of sunshine, nor glittering moonbeams in Claude. ”

“ Old Ruben rolled and muttered where he lay on the moss beside me.
"The house is afire," he gabbled. "The house is afire. Thar goes Tom—an' them injuns—an' good riddance. Hen, ye're the devil himself! Worse'n ye used ter be. Never a word of Holy Scripture now to sweeten it, like in the old days. The money is all we want, Hen, an' we's good as got our hands on it now. An' a man hadn't ought to burn his own brother to death that a-way. ”

“ Rubens and I had strolled away from the rest, and I was exercising him in some of his tricks when the little baronet passed us with his accustomed air of mingled melancholy, dignity, and self-consciousness. I was a good deal fascinated by him. Beauty has a strong attraction for children, and the depth of his weeds invested him with a melancholy interest, which has also great charms for the young. Then, to crown all, he mourned the loss of a young mother—and so did I. I involuntarily showed off Rubens as he approached, and he lingered and watched us. ”

“ Every now and then a wheel went over a rock, a root or a log of an imperfect culvert, jouncing us sharply. Stack drove for a long time in silence. At last he spoke, suddenly.
"I'll bet ten dollars it wasn't old Ruben fired that shot," he said. "I ain't tryin' to defend him, mind you, but that wouldn't be his way. He'd know all about it, plan it, like as not, but when it comes to pullin' a trigger on a man—no, not for Ruben! He's short on nerve; and nerve's what's needed for the shootin' of a man in cold blood.' Whoever's workin' with him, he's the man with the rifle. ”

“ It looked to me as if the lantern either received a direct hit or was overturned."
"Warning be damned! There's no third party to that outfit. That was an aimed shot, fired to kill; and I wish to heaven it had killed—but I guess it didn't, or Ruben would have stopped at home today. He hasn't the nerve to carry on single-handed." ”

“ I've fooled Ruben and his partner once. This should be easy. We'll bag those damn murderers by craft instead of by force. It'll be safer, too."
Stack liked the idea. I elaborated my plan to him.
When we reached the barns, he said that he would not wait until daylight, as it was important to warn the Jeanbards, without loss of time, to say nothing of my accident nor of having seen me since my first visit. I made no effort to detain him, but went on to the house. The light was gone from the kitchen; but within ten yards of the door I was greeted silently by all three dogs. ”

“ Tom helped him generously to bacon and eggs. For a little while we ate without further speech—but not in silence.
"I be a child of nature," said Ruben presently, turning his one eye on me. "A simple child of nature. I don't pertend to no gentility. I live simple an' eat plain an' drink water an' tea. If ye was to offer me a fortune of money, I wouldn't take it. It's the animals knows how to live. I kin jump into the snow, stark naked, any winter mornin', an' feel all the better for it. With a rub of b'ar's grease into my j'ints I'm fit an' ready for thirty miles of rough goin' any day. ”

“ One of the greatest tragedies of my life is the death of Lucien de Rubempré. It is a grief from which I have never been able completely to rid myself. It haunts me in my moments of pleasure. ”

“ But Ruby’s words have come to him this summer morning awakening old memories long slumbering, and his thoughts wander from the dear old days, up—up—up to God’s land on high, where, in the fair summer morning of Paradise, one is waiting longingly, hopefully—one who, even up in heaven, will be bitterly disappointed if those who in the old days she loved more than life itself will not one day join her there. ”

“ The white moonlight is flooding the land when at length they retire to rest. Ruby’s dreams are all of her new-found friend whom she is so soon to lose, and when she is awakened by the sunlight of the newer morning streaming in [Pg 26] upon her face a rush of gladness and of sorrow strive hard for mastery in her heart—gladness because Jack is still here, sorrow because he is going away. ”

“ Through the sunlight, across the cleared space of grass which surrounds the station, a horse and rider are coming. With the sunny glare in her eyes, it is not until he is quite near that Ruby sees that the approaching figure really is her father. Strangers do not come often to Glengarry; but it [Pg 12] so chances that now and again a stray traveller on his way to the coast claims the hospitality of the station.
He swings off his horse at the garden-gate, flings the reins to Dick, the stable-boy, and stoops to kiss the face of the little girl who has run out to meet him. ”

“ She goes out to the verandah after dinner, and, swinging idly in the hammock, indulges in the luxury of dreaming. Above her stretches the cloudless blue of the Australian sky, for miles on her every hand lie the undulations of Australian bush; but Ruby is far away from it all, away in bonnie Scotland, with its rippling burns and purple heather, away in the land where her mother lived and died, and where Ruby’s own baby eyes first opened.
“It’s about too good to be true,” the little girl is thinking. “It’s like dreaming, and then you waken from the dream and find it’s all just a make-up. ”

“ Ruby, left alone, stands by Smuttie’s head, consoling that faithful little animal now and then with a pat of the hand. It is hot, scorchingly hot; but such cold dread sits at the little girl’s heart that she does not even feel the heat. In her ears is the hissing of those fierce flames, and her love for dad has grown to be a very [Pg 55] agony in the thought that something may befall him. ”

“ She knows she ought to go back to help old Davis and yet she cannot—cannot!
Then a great flash of light comes before her eyes, and Ruby suddenly wakens to find herself in her own little bed, the white curtains drawn closely to ward off mosquitoes, and the morning sun slanting in and forming a long golden bar on the opposite curtain.
The little girl rubs her eyes and stares about her. She, who has so often even doubted reality, finds it hard to believe that what has passed is really a dream. Even yet the angel voices seem to be sounding in her ears, the heavenly light dazzling her eyes. ”

“ Heaven has never been a very real place to this little girl, although her mother is there; the far-off city, with its pearly gates and golden streets, holds but a shadowy place in Ruby’s heart, and before to-night she has never greatly desired to enter therein.
The life of the present has claimed all her attention, and, amidst the joys and pleasures of to-day, the coming life has held but little place. ”

“ Have the goodness, therefore, to let me pass.'
'But, my dear Guy, how about our uncle's money?'
'What about my uncle's money?'
'Our uncle's; forgive the plural, Guy. Hadn't we better come to some friendly arrangement while there still is time. You'll never get the ruby out of the Bewicke woman; I know her; she's a daughter of the horse-leech; she'll see you damned first. Relinquish the chase at once--you'll have to in a few hours, anyhow--and throw yourself on my magnanimity. There's a suggestion, Guy! ”

“ It is her first remembered tasting of that most sorrowful of all words, “Good-bye,” a good-bye none the less bitter that the “good morning” came to her but in yesterday’s sunshine. It is not always those whom we have known the longest whom we love the best.
Even the thought of the promised new doll fails to comfort the little girl in this her first keenest sorrow of parting. For long she stands at the gate, gazing out into the sunlight, which beats down hotly upon her uncovered head.
“It’s only till next Christmas anyway,” Ruby murmurs with a shadowy attempt at a smile. ”

“ Ruby was a dear little kittenish creature, very fond of play. She was dreadfully afraid of me at first, and much too suspicious to venture inside my room. The sight of me at the window sent her flying into the safe shelter of the sleeping-box, and once there she would, like all the others of her sex, swear at Peter, and dig her little claws into his nose if he tried to get in too. ”

“ RUBY goes about her work and play very gravely for the next few days. A great sorrow sits at her heart which only time can lighten and chase away. She is very lonely, this little girl—lonely without even knowing it, but none the less to be pitied on that account. To her step-mother Ruby never even dreams of turning for comfort or advice in her small troubles and griefs. Dad is his little girl’s confidant; but, then, dad is often away, and in Mrs. Thorne’s [Pg 64] presence Ruby never thinks of confiding in her father. ”

“ Robert had. Little changes. Only Mammy Chloe and George were left of the five servants. Only one car. Only one horse. Little things like that. And then, he suddenly remembered, the office had been closed in New York.
“Oh, I thought,” he was going to say that they were economizing, “I don’t know what I thought. I guess I didn’t think about it at all.”
“Well, the war has made some men, but it’s broken me. Not completely, but—” he waved his cigar. “There’s enough for us to live on the rest of our lives—that is the three of us—although on a slightly reduced scale. ”

“ Instantly a thought of the treasure he carried recurred to his mind, and releasing the now quieted horse, he thrust his hand hastily into his pocket. The jewel was gone. He declares that for a moment he felt as if he had been struck on the head by one of the hoofs of the frantic horse he had just handled. But immediately the importance of his loss and the necessity he felt for instant action restored him to himself, and shouting aloud, "I have dropped Mrs. Burton's ruby!" he begged every one to stand still while he made a search for it. ”

“ Besides, perhaps dad wouldn’t like me.”
“Good will toward men! Good will toward men!” Again the heavenly voices seem ringing in Ruby’s ears. There is no angel host about her to strengthen and encourage her, only one very lonely little girl who finds it hard to do right when the doing of that right does not quite fit in with her own inclinations. She has taken the first step upon the heavenly way, and finds already the shadow of the cross.
The radiance of the sunshine is reflected in Ruby’s brown eyes, the radiance, it may be, of something far greater in her heart. ”