Terrytoons

“ Terry started. "How do you know that?"
"I just guess at things."
"I started working for an infernal idiot," sighed Terry. "When he learned my name, he seemed to be afraid I'd start shooting up his place one of these days."
"Well, he was a wise gent. You ain't cut out for working, son. Not a bit. It'd be a shame to let you go to waste simply raising calluses on your hands."
"You talk well," sighed Terry, "but you can't convince me."
"Convince you? Hell, I ain't trying to convince your father's son. You're like Black Jack. You got to find out yourself. ”

“ Eastward the winding length of Bear Creek was turning pink and purple. The Cornish ranch had never seemed so beautiful to Terry as it was at this moment. It was a kingdom, and he was leaving, the disinherited heir.
He turned west to the blare of the sunset. Blue Mountains tumbled away in lessening ranges—beyond was Craterville, and he must go there today. That was the world to him just then. And something new passed through Terry. The world was below him; it lay at his feet with its hopes and its battles. And he was strong for the test. He had been living in a dream. Now he would live in fact. ”

“ Terrington was alone when it fell, riding along the column, persuading, encouraging, helping, threatening; lifting, by sheer strength of will, the tired trail of men higher and higher. He slid off his shaggy barebacked little pony, turned its tail to the wind, and leant against it for the warmth which he knew both soon would need. ”

“ Terriss fetches a screen from the left, and places it behind Miss Terry’s chair; Mr. Irving sits facing Miss Terry, backed by another screen to keep off draughts; Mr. Terriss sits a little way back, and the dog goes to sleep in the centre of the group. In the background appear three or four costumed specimen monks and retainers waiting to be inspected, one frivolous being trying to balance a yard measure on the tip of his nose in a manner which ill accords with his monkish vestments. The “music cues” are very difficult to get right. Nearly an hour is consumed in trying different effects. ”

“ Terry was all atingle. Life was shaping itself to an adventure.
And so, though it appeared that all of the time in the world was theirs for loitering—for it should be a simple matter to come to Red Creek well in advance of Blenham and his dupe—Terry yielded to her excitement, Steve yielded out of hand to the lure of Terry, and, quite gay about it, they sped away through the moonlight. While Terry, driver, perforce kept her eyes busied with the road, Steve Packard leaned back in his seat and contented himself with the vision of his fellow adventurer. ”

“ Very soon a horse's head appeared, then his body, and afterwards the cart he was drawing, and the frosty-red face of the driver who was sitting on a load of turf on the cart.
"Hullo!" shouted the man. "What on airth are you doin' there in the dyke, little missy?"
"Oh," cried Terry, "I've broken my pony's knees, and I can't ride him, and I couldn't see the way to Connolly's farm, and even if I did now I don't know how to get there with Jocko!" ”

“ And first an' foremost Connolly's farm is away over yonder, two miles from Trimleston House in the opposite direction; you took the wrong road from the first."
"Oh!" groaned Terry; "and must I go home straight with Jocko's knees broken, and without the eggs?" [Pg 54]
"An' thankful you ought to be to get there," said the carter, "you an' the pony, without any bones broken. But how do you think you're goin' to get home itself, now, missy?"
"You're the unkindest person I ever knew," said Terry. "I didn't think there was so unkind a man in the world. Everyone was always kind to me before." ”

“ When we all do?"
"Mir Khan permitting," said Terrington with a smile.
"Will it be more dangerous where he is than where we shall be?"
"No," said Terrington; "rather safer. He'll have a line of retreat."
"Safer!" she echoed with astonishment; "then why didn't you send me with him?"
Terrington looked at her thoughtfully as he inverted the tin of milk above his mug.
"Pure selfishness," he said. "I wanted some one to pour out tea for me before the battles." ”

“ Terrington, completely at fault, made no attempt to console her. He knew when to leave a man unhindered and to give a horse its head, and the instinct helped him with a woman's tears. He stood watching her sobbing shoulders, and the shadows on her golden hair, but his thoughts, the instant they were freed from her, flew forward to the forcing of the Sorágh Gul, the double-headed defile on the road to Rashát, where he knew Mir Khan could intercept him and compel him to face an attack from three sides at once. ”

“ Terry was again in bed, when he started with a wild shriek. “Mother of mercy!” he frantically vociferated, “here is the Boccough Ruadh; I hear the tramp of his wooden leg on the floor.”
“Lord save us!” said the old woman in a trembling voice, “what can ail him now? Maybe it’s more money he has hid somewhere else.”
“Oh, do you hear how he rattles about! Devil a kippeen in the cabin but he will destroy,” exclaimed poor Terry. “It’s the black day to us that ever we seen himself or his dirty thrash of money; and if God saves me till morning, I’ll go back and lave every rap ov id where I got it.” ”

“ And before the end of the fourth year, he would bribe the grooms to allow him to take the horses to water. “My Lord,” said his wife unto Teirnyon, “Where is the colt which thou didst save on the night that thou foundest the boy?” “I have commanded the grooms of the horses,” said he, “that they take care of him.” “Would it not be well, Lord,” said she, “if thou wert to cause him to be broken in, and given to p. 34the boy, seeing that on the same night that thou didst find the boy, the colt was foaled and thou didst save him.” “I will not oppose thee in this matter,” said Teirnyon. ”

“ Terry, remembering his Syndicate, had a momentary check.—"I don't know yet," he confessed.
"Because if you have," the Squire continued, "and find them employment—spend money in the place—and use a certain amount of tact—you might hit it off with them. But do try to overlook their Chapels. A soul's sometimes saved under a tin roof, you know."
Terry looked as if he would far rather have his soul damned under a Gothic nave.—"That's simply buying 'em off," he said. He would have preferred to burn them, each at one of the stakes they had uprooted. ”

“ Sure, poor people do have to walk into a shop, and just try and try till they get a pair to fit them."
Terry sat on the old woman's knee, and threw her arms round her neck.
"I'll darn the stockings, and sew on the strings and buttons, and read your prayer-book to you, and read the newspaper to you after Grandma has done with it. Is there anything else I can do for you, Nursey darling?"
"Nothing in the world, except try to be good an' keep out of mischief, Miss Terry."
"But I do so want to be good always, Nancy. ”

“ Terrington had stepped towards the doorway as he realized the significance of what she had seen. She put herself sharply in front of him, her head flung fiercely back.
"What are you going to do?" she demanded. "You let them go like that, you made them go like that! That's what's done it all! You wouldn't let them take the men! Aren't you going to try to save them? They mayn't be dead! ”

“ The lantern light gleamed on the stained flank of El Sangre.
"Halloo, Jake, that you?"
The man with the lantern raised it, but its light merely served to blind him. Terry passed on without a word and heard the other mutter behind him: "Some damn stranger!"
Perhaps strangers were not welcome in Craterville. At least, it seemed so when he reached the hotel after putting up his horse in the shed behind the old building. Half a dozen dark forms sat on the veranda talking in the subdued voices which he had noted before. Terry stepped through the lighted doorway. There was no one inside. ”

“ He was always ready for any startling plot or plan that Terry might propose to him.
"Did you hear Nancy saying Granny was getting weak for want of her new-laid eggs, and that the hens wouldn't lay them for her?"
"No," said Turly.
"Well, she did."
"We can't help it," said Turly.
"You can't, dear; but I can. I'm older than you."
"The hens won't do it for you, no matter how old you are," said Turly.
"Oh!" said Terry impatiently, "that is not [Pg 44] what I mean! There's a few hens down at Connolly's farm, and Nancy thinks they lay." ”

“ Terry repeated the question.
“Send for a doctor!—give you money!” echoed the old man. “Where the devil would I get money to pay a doctor?”
“You have it, and ten times as much,” said Terry, “and you cannot deny it.”
“If I have as much money as would buy me a coffin,” said the Boccough, “may my soul never rest quiet in the grave.”
Terry crossed his brow with terror. He knew the unhappy wretch was dying with a lie on his tongue, but he resolved not to press the matter further.
“You are dying as fast as you can,” remarked Terry; “have you any thing to say before you go?” ”

“ Then there came to Terry one day a man who not only did not laugh at him, but grasped him by the hand, patted him all up the arm and across the breast as if he conferred invisible decorations upon him, gave Thelema his blessing, and said, in moved tones, "Indeed it is splen-did—splen-did—without vis-ion the people perish-eth." He told Terry that his name was Tudor Williams, and that he was the parliamentary representative of the constituency a portion of which Terry and the gods on high were developing. ”

“ First of all the children took each one of his fore-paws and danced with him many times round the room. Vulcan enjoyed the dance for a time, and bore it patiently for another time, but at last he conveyed by a short significant bark that he had had enough of it.
"Is he getting cross?" said Turly. [Pg 28]
"No, but I'll tell you what it is," said Terry. "He gets tired sooner than we do because we are accustomed to have only two legs to go with and he is used to four. And we have taken away two of his legs. We have been making arms of them."
"Yes indeed," said Turly, dropping the dog's paw. ”

“ Terry was told. He came to his mother's room after hearing the story. She had been expecting him. In the end her men always brought her their troubles. So she had piled up a bright fire, had set a couple of softly cushioned chairs side by side, as though the physical comfort would reach the wounded spirit. She smiled to herself rather piteously at the thought. Men were susceptible to comfort, to being petted, no matter at what age one loved them, or in what grief one would comfort them.
She was in her silk dressing gown, her hair in two long plaits before Terry came. ”

“ And they journeyed towards Narberth, and it was not long before they reached that place. And as they drew near to the palace, they beheld Rhiannon sitting beside the horse block. And when they were opposite to her. “Chieftain,” said she, “go not further thus, I will bear every one of you into the palace, and this is my penance for slaying my own son and devouring him.” “Oh fair lady,” said Teirnyon, “think not that I will be one to be carried upon thy back.” “Neither will I,” said the boy. “Truly, my soul,” said Teirnyon, “we will not go.” ”

“ Terry found himself facing a short-throated man with heavy shoulders; he wore a shapeless black hat bunched on his head as though the whole hand had grasped the crown and shoved the hat into place. It sat awkwardly to one side. And the hat typified the whole man. There was a sort of shifty readiness about him. His eyes flashed in the lamplight as they glanced at the bed, and then flicked back toward Terry. And a smile began somewhere in his face and instantly went out. It was plain that he had understood the maneuver. ”

“ There were six little fishermen and fisherwomen, all in red flannel frocks and bare feet. Nonie, the eldest, who was eight years old, could not cease admiring the strangers.
"Where were ye?" she asked suddenly, after a long, worshipful silence, with her eyes fixed now on Terry and now on Turly.
"Oh! isn't she sweet?" cried Terry. "What do you mean, Nonie?"
"Where were ye before?" stammered Nonie.
"Oh, miss," said the mother, laughing, "she [Pg 102] wants to know where ye live, for she never seen the like o' ye before!"
"We live over on the other shore, in a big house, Nonie ”

“ When Terry appeared as usual in her white frock, with her little blue silk work-bag, and with what Nurse Nancy called her "Mary" face, Granny said to herself that the child was a sweet little lady; but remarked that Terry [Pg 77] looked pale. Was her clothing warm enough? Had she eaten a good dinner? No, said Nancy, she hadn't eaten a good dinner, not to-day; but it was only once, and for a wonder.
"Wait till you see what a tea she'll make, madam. Myself thinks children sometimes hides their appetites in their pockets and brings them out again when they get something they like." ”

“ Rex laid back his ears and rolled up his eyes in beatific quiescence.
“The beauty!” applauded Desirée. “See, Caleb! [272] He’s trying to look like a Numidean lion. He worships children. Look at him!”
“You forget, Desirée,” said Mrs. Hawarden, in icy pleasantry. “Rex is not a tripe sandwich. To a rare soul like Mr. Conover’s, even a sunset,—to say nothing of a mere dog and a child—must yield to the charms of supper. Come. We’re all keeping him.”
“I had an idee,” muttered Caleb, as he passed her on the way to the dining room, “that it was ’tother way round.” ”

“ Of course, this kind of life could not go on for ever, and there were times when Terry paused in his eager quest for amusement long enough to ask himself what he would like to be and to do for a living. The answers to the question were as various as Terry's moods. He fain would be a sailor, soldier, fireman, policeman, or coachman, according as he had been most lately impressed with the advantages and attractions of that particular occupation. He even sometimes let his thoughts aspire as high as the position of clerk in the offices of Drummond and Brown, the owners of Long Wharf. ”