II
Nearly every available grape-picker in the little valley was at Bassett's vineyard. There was a faint murmur of surprise when Em walked into the camp on Monday morning.
"I thought you weren't coming, Em," said Irene Burnham, curving her smooth, sunburned neck away from the tall young fellow who stood beside her.
"I changed my mind," said Em quietly.
"It's awful hot work," giggled Irene, "and I always burn so; I wish I tanned. But I'm going to hold out the rest of this week, if I burn to a cinder."
"'Rene's after a new parasol," announced her brother teasingly; "she's bound to save her complexion if it takes the skin off."
The young people gave a little shout of delight, and straggled down the aisles of the vineyard. The thick growth had fallen away from the gnarled trunks of the vines, and the grapes hung in yellowing clusters to the warm, sun-dried earth. The trays were scattered in uneven rows on the plowed ground between the vines, their burden turning to sweetened amber in the sunshine. The air was heavy with the rich, fruity ferment of the grapes. Bees were beginning to drone among the trays. The mountains which hemmed in the little valley were a deep, velvety blue in the morning light. Em looked at them with a new throb in her heart. She did not care what was beyond them as she walked between the tangled vine-rows. Stephen Elliott had left Irene, and walked beside her. The valley was wide enough for Em's world, – a girl's world, which is hemmed in by mountains always, and always narrow.
As the day advanced the gay calls of the grape-harvesters grew more and more infrequent. The sky seemed to fade in the glare of the sun to a pale, whitish blue. Buzzards reeled through the air, as if drunken with sunlight. The ashen soil of the vineyard burned Em's feet and dazzled her eyes. She stood up now and then and looked far down the valley where the yellow barley-stubble shimmered off into haze. As she looked, something straightened her lips into a resolute line and sent her back to her work with softened eyes.
"Do you get very tired, Em?" her brother asked, as she sat in the doorway at nightfall.
The girl leaned her head against the casement as if to steady her weary voice.
"Not very," she said slowly and gravely; "it's a little warm at noon, but I don't mind it."
"I thought sure I'd be up by this time," fretted the invalid, the yearning in his heart that pain could not quench turning his sympathy to envy.
"The doctor says you're getting on real well, Ben," said Em steadily.
The young fellow looked down at his wasted hands, gray and ghostly in the twilight.
"Was 'Rene there?" he asked.
"Yes."
"It isn't like having your sister go out to work, Benny," said Mrs. Wickersham soothingly; "just the neighbors, and real nice folks, too. I wouldn't fret about it."
On Wednesday morning, as Em neared the camp, she saw the grape-pickers gathered in a little group before the girls' tent. Steve Elliott separated himself from the crowd, and came to meet her.
"We've struck, Em," he said, smiling down at her from the shadow of his big hat.
"Who's we?" asked Em gravely.
"All of us. They're paying a dollar and a quarter over at Briggs's; we ain't a-goin' to stand it."
Em had stopped in the path. The young fellow stepped behind her, and she went on.
"Why don't you all go over to Briggs's and go to work?" she asked, without turning her head.
"Too far – the foreman'll come to time."
They came up to the noisy group, and Em seated herself on a pile of trays and loosened the strings of her wide hat; she was tired from her walk, and the pallor of her face made her lips seem redder.
Irene Burnham crossed over to the newcomer, shrugging herself with girlish self-consciousness.
"Isn't it just too mean, Em?" she panted; "I know they'll discharge us. That means good-by to my new parasol; I've been dying for one all summer, a red silk one" —
"Let up on the parasol racket, Sis," called one of the Burnham boys; "business is business."
The hum of the young voices went on, mingled with gay, irresponsible laughter. Em got up and began to tie her hat.
"Where are you going?" asked one of the girls.
"I'm going to work."
"To work! why, we've struck!"
"I haven't," said Em soberly. "I'm willing to work for a dollar a day."
There was a little cry of dismay from the girls; Steve Elliott's tanned face flushed a coppery red.
"You ain't goin' back on us, Em?" he said angrily.
"I ain't going back on my word," answered the girl; "you needn't work if you don't want to; this is a free country."
"It isn't, though,"' said Ike Burnham; "the raisin men have a ring – there's no freedom where there's rings."
"I suppose they go into them because they want to," said Em, setting her lips.
"They go into them because they'd get left if they didn't."
"Well, if I was a raisin man," persisted the girl quietly, "and wanted to go into a ring, I'd do it; but if anybody undertook to boss me into it, they'd have the same kind of a contract on hand that you've got." She turned her back on the little group and started toward the vineyard.
Irene had drifted toward Steve Elliott's side and was smiling expectantly up into his bronzed face. He broke away from her glance and strode after the retreating figure.
"Em!" The girl turned quickly.
"Oh, Steve!" she cried, with a pleading sob in her voice.
"Em, you're making a fool of yourself!" he broke out cruelly.
The curve in the red lips straightened.
"Let me alone!" she gasped, putting up her hand to her throat. "If I'm to be made a fool of, I'd rather do it myself. I guess I can stand it, if you'll let me alone!"
III
When Bassett's foreman rode into the vineyard at noon to talk with the strikers, he saw a wide brown hat moving slowly among the vine-rows.
"Who's that?" he asked, pointing with his whip.
"Em Wickersham," said one of the group sullenly.
The foreman turned his horse's head, and galloped down the furrow.
"Miss Wickersham."
Em straightened herself, and pushed back her hat.
"You don't want to give up your job?"
The girl shaded her eyes with her hand. There was an unsteady movement of her chin before she spoke.
"I'd like to work till Friday night," she said.
"Well, I'd like to keep you; but I don't know how it will be. I won't stand any of their nonsense," – he jerked his head toward the camp; "I'm going to send over to Aliso Cañon for a wagon-load of pickers. I'm pretty certain I can get them, but they'll all be men; you might find it a little unpleasant."
"Who are they?" asked Em.
"Only a lot of ranchers picked up over the neighborhood," said the foreman. "I think I can find enough men and boys who are through harvesting. I'll try anyway."
"Will you be here all the time?" asked the girl.
"All of to-morrow and most of Friday," he answered, wondering a little.
"Well, I guess if you don't care, I'll stay; I guess they won't hurt me," – the wraith of a smile flitted across her face.
"All right." The foreman urged his horse forward.
"The Wickershams must be hard pressed," he said to himself; "the girl looks pale. Confound those young rascals!"
Across at the camp Em could hear laughter and snatches of song. The soft rustle of the grape-leaves in the tepid breeze seemed to emphasize the stillness about her. Now and then a quail, tilting its queer little crest, scurried across the furrows and whirred out of sight. Pink-footed doves ran along the edge of the vineyard, mourning plaintively. The girl worked on without faltering, looking down the valley now and then through a blur that was not haze, and seeing always something there that dulled the pain of her loneliness.
The day wore on. Em had eaten her lunch alone, in the shadow of the cypress hedge. As the afternoon advanced and the sea-breeze wandered over the mountains in fitful gusts, the campers trooped homeward, still laughing and calling to each other with reckless shouts. Em straightened her aching limbs, and watched them as they went. 'Rene's pink dress fluttered close to the tallest form among them, loitering a little, and standing out in silhouette against the afternoon sky at the end of the straggling procession as it disappeared over the hilltop.
IV
It was Friday evening, and Em laid five silver dollars on the kitchen table beside her mother.
"You can give that to Ben," she said wearily.
Mrs. Wickersham glanced from the money to her daughter's dusty shoes, and set, colorless face.
"Emmy, I'm afraid you've overdone," she said with a start.
"No, I haven't," answered the girl without flinching; "it's been a little hard yesterday and to-day, and I'm tired, that's all. Don't tell Ben."
"Are you too tired to go to the church sociable this evening?" pursued the mother anxiously.
"Yes, I believe I am."
"I saw Steve Elliott and 'Rene Burnham driving that way a few minutes ago. I thought they was over at the camp." Mrs. Wickersham had resumed her work and had her back toward her daughter.
"They weren't there to-day," said Em listlessly.
"Does she go with him much?"
There was a rising resentment in Mrs. Wickersham's voice. Em glanced at her anxiously.
"I don't know," she faltered.
"I don't see how she can act so!" the older woman broke out indignantly.
The girl's face turned a dull white; she opened her lips to breathe.
"I used to think she liked Benny," Mrs. Wickersham went on, speaking in a heated undertone. "I should think she'd be ashamed of herself."
Em's voice came back.
"I don't believe Ben cares, mother," she said soothingly.
"I don't care if he doesn't, she'd ought to," urged Mrs. Wickersham, with maternal logic.
There was a sound of strained, ineffectual coughing in the front room. Mrs. Wickersham left her work and hurried away. When she came back Em was sitting on the doorstep with her forehead in her hands.
"Benny's got a notion he could drive over to the store to-morrow," her mother began excitedly; "he's got something in his head. He thinks if Joe Atkinson would bring their low buggy – I'm sure I don't know what to say;" the poor woman's voice trembled with responsibility.
Em got up with a quick, decisive movement.
"Don't say anything, mother. If Ben wants to go, he's got to go. I'll run over to Atkinson's right away."
Mrs. Wickersham caught her daughter's arm.
"No, no; not to-night. He said in the morning, he must be better, don't you think so, Emmy?" she pleaded.
"Of course," said Em fiercely. Then she turned and fastened a loosened hairpin in her mother's disordered hair. Even a caress wore its little mask of duty with Em. "Of course he's better, mother," she said more gently.
V
It was Sunday, and the little valley was still with the stillness of warm, drowsy, quiescent life. At noon, the narrow road stretching between the shadowless barley-fields was haunted by slender, hurrying spirals of dust, like phantoms tempted by the silence to a wild frolic in the sunlight. The white air shimmered in wavy lines above the stubble. Em shut her eyes as she came out of the little church, as if the glare blinded her. Steve was waiting near the door, and a sudden, unreasoning hope thrilled her heart. He was looking for some one. She could hear the blood throbbing in her temples. He took a step forward. Then a red silken cloud shut out her sun, and the riot died out of her poor young heart. 'Rene was smiling up into his sunburned face from the roseate glory of her new parasol. Em walked home through the sunlight with the echo of their banter humming in her ears.
Ben sat on the porch watching for her, a feverish brightness in his sunken eyes.
"Was 'Rene at church?" he asked eagerly.
"Yes, Ben."
Em stood behind his chair, looking down at the cords of his poor, wasted neck. Her eyelids burned with hot, unshed tears.
"Did she look nice – did she have anything new?"
"Yes, she had a new parasol. She looked real pretty." The girl spoke with dull, unfeeling gentleness. Ben tried to turn and look up into her face.
"She's been wanting it all summer. I told her 'way long in the spring that I'd get it for her birthday. I wonder if she forgot it? I didn't have any idea I'd be laid up this way."
Em stood perfectly still.
"I'll bet she was surprised, Em," he went on wistfully; "do you think she'll come over and say anything about it?"
"She'd better," said Em, setting her teeth in her bright under lip.
The invalid gave a little, choking cough, and looked out across the valley. A red spot was moving through the stubble toward the house. He put up his hot hand and laid it on Em's cold fingers.
"Mother tried to fool me about the money," he said feebly, "but I think I know where she got it. I don't mean to forget it either, Em. I'll pay it back just as soon as I get up."
"Yes, Ben."
The girl dropped her cheek on his head with a little wailing sob.
"Yes, Ben, I ain't a bit afraid about my pay." Then she slipped her hand from under his and went into the house.
The red spot was drawing nearer. Mrs. Wickersham glanced through the open window at her son.
"Benny's looking brighter than I've seen him in a long time," she thought. "I guess his ride yesterday done him good."
And in her little room Em sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the wall through blinding tears.
"I wish I had it all to do over again," she said. "I'd do it all – even if I knew – for Ben!"
COLONEL BOB JARVIS
I
We were sojourning between Anaheim and the sea. There was a sunshiny dullness about the place, like the smiles of a vapid woman. The bit of vineyard surrounding our whitewashed cabin was an emerald set in the dull, golden-brown plain. Before the door an artesian well glittered in the sun like an inverted crystal bowl. Esculapius called the spot Fezzan, and gradually I came to think the well a fountain, and the sunburnt waste about us a stretch of yellow sand.
When I had walked to the field of whispering corn behind the house, and through the straggling vines to the edge of the vineyard in front, I came back to where my invalid sat beneath the feathery acacias, dreaming in happy lonesomeness.
"Did you ever see such placid, bright, ethereal stillness?" I asked.
Esculapius took his cigar from his lips and looked at me pensively.
"It may be my misfortune, I hope it is not my fault, but I do not remember to have seen stillness of any sort."
Esculapius has but one shortcoming – he is not a poet. I never wound him by appearing to notice this defect, so I sat down on the dry burr-clover and made no reply.
"You think it is still," he went on in a mannish, instructive way, "but in fact there are a thousand sounds. At night, when it is really quiet, you will hear the roar of the ocean ten miles away. Hark!"
Our host was singing far down in the corn. He was a minister, a deep-toned Methodist, brimming over with vocal piety.
"Nearer the great white throne,
Nearer the jasper sea," —
came to us in slow, rich cadences.
The fern-like branches above us stirred softly against the blue. Little aromatic whiffs came from the grove of pale eucalyptus-trees near the house. Esculapius diluted the intoxicating air with tobacco smoke and remained sane, but as for me the sunshine went to my head, and whirled and eddied there like some Eastern drug.
"My love," I said wildly, "if we stay here very long and nothing happens, I shall do something rash."
The next morning a huge derrick frowned in the dooryard, and a picturesque group of workmen lounged under the acacias. The well had ceased to flow.
Esculapius called me to a corner of the piazza, and spoke in low, hurried tones.
"Something has happened," he said; "the well has stopped. I thought it might relieve your feelings to get off that quotation about the golden bowl and the wheel, and the pitcher, and the fountain, etc.; then, if it is safe to leave you, I would like to go hunting."
I looked at him with profound compassion.
"I have forgotten the quotation," I said, "but I think it begins: 'The grinders shall cease because they are few.' Perhaps you had better take your shotgun, and don't forget your light overcoat. Good-by."
Then I took a pitcher and went down the walk to the disglorified well. The musical drip on the pebbles was hushed; the charm of our oasis had departed. In its place stood a length of rusty pipe full of standing water. Some bits of maiden's-hair I had placed in reach of the cool spray yesterday were already withered in the sun. I took the gourd from its notch in the willows sadly. Some one had been before me and carved "Ichabod" on its handle. I filled my pitcher and turned to go. A tall form separated itself from the group of workmen and came gallantly forward.
"Madame," said a rich, hearty voice, "if you'll just allow me, I'll tackle that pitcher and tote it in for you. Jarvis is my name, Colonel Bob Jarvis, well-borer. We struck a ten-inch flow down at Scranton's last week, and rather knocked the bottom out of things around here."
"But the pitcher isn't at all heavy, Colonel Jarvis."
"Oh, never mind that: anything's too heavy for a lady; that's my sentiments. You see, I'm a ladies' man, – born and brought up to it. Nursed my mother and two aunts and a grandmother through consumption, and never let one of 'em lift a finger. 'Robert,' my mother used to say, in her thin, sickly voice, 'Robert, be true to God and the women;' and, by godfrey, I mean to be."
I relinquished the pitcher instantly. Esculapius was right; something had happened. The well was gone, but in its place I had found something a thousand times more refreshing. When my husband returned, he found me sitting breathless and absorbed under the acacias.
"Hush!" I said, with upraised finger; "listen!"
Our host and the colonel were talking as they worked at the well.
"We've had glorious meetings this week over at Gospel Swamp, Jarvis," the minister was saying. "I looked for you every night. If you could just come over and hear the singing, and have some of the good brothers and sisters pray with you, don't you think" —
"Why, God bless your soul, man!" interrupted the colonel; "don't you know I'm religious? I'm with you right along, as to first principles, that is; but, you see, I can't quite go the Methodist doctrine. I was raised a Presbyterian, you know, – regular black-and-blue Calvinist, – and what a fellow takes in with his mother's milk sticks by him. I'm attached to the old ideas, – infant damnation, and total depravity, and infernal punishment, and the interference of the saints. You fellows over at the Swamp are loose! Why, by – the way, my mother used to say to me, in her delicate, squeaky voice: 'Robert, beware of Methodists; they're loose, my son, loose as a bag of bones.' No, indeed, I wouldn't want you to think me indifferent to religion; religion's my forte. Why, by – and by, I mean to start a Presbyterian church right here under your nose."
"I'm glad of it," responded the minister warmly; "you've no idea how glad I am, Jarvis."
"Why, man alive, that church is in my mind day and night. I want to get about forty good, pious Presbyterian families to settle around here, and I'll bore wells for 'em, and talk up the church business between times. You saw me carrying that lady's pitcher for her this morning, didn't you? Well, by – the way, that was a religious move entirely. I took her man for a Presbyterian preacher the minute I struck the ranch; maybe it's poor health gives him that cadaverous look, but you can't most always tell. More likely it's religion. At any rate" —
Esculapius retreated in wild disorder, and did not appear again until supper-time. When that meal was finished, Colonel Jarvis followed me as I walked to the piazza.
"If it ain't presuming, madam," he said confidentially, "I'd like to ask your advice. I take it you're from the city, now?"
"Yes," I answered, with preternatural gravity; "what makes you think so?"
"Well, I knew it by your gait, mostly. A woman that's raised in the country walks as if she was used to havin' the road to herself; city women are generally good steppers. But that ain't the point. I'm engaged to be married!"
My composure under this announcement was a good deal heightened by the fact that Esculapius, who had sauntered out after us, whistling to himself, became suddenly quiet, and disappeared tumultuously.
"Engaged to be married!" I said. "Let me congratulate you, Colonel. May I hope to see the fortunate young lady?"
"That depends. You see, I'm in a row, – the biggest kind of a row, by – a good deal; and I thought you might give me a lift. She's a 'Frisco lady, you know; one of your regular high-flyers; black eyes, bangs, no end o' spirit. You see, she was visitin' over at Los Nietos, and we made it up, and when she went back to 'Frisco I thought I'd send her a ring; so I bought this," fumbling in his pocket, and producing the most astounding combination of red glass and pinchbeck; "and, by godfrey! she sent it back to me. Now, I don't see anything wrong about that ring; do you?"
"It is certainly a little – well, peculiar, at least, for an engagement ring; perhaps she would like something a trifle less showy. Ladies have a great many whims about jewelry, you know."
"Exactly. That is just what I reflected. So I went and bought this" (triumphantly displaying a narrow band); "now that's what I call genteel; don't you? Well, if you'll believe it, she sent that back, too, by – return mail. I wish I'd fetched you the letter she wrote; if it wasn't the spiciest piece of literature I ever read by – anybody. 'She'd have me understand she wasn't a barmaid nor a Quaker; and if I didn't know what was due a lady in her position, I'd better find out before I aspired to her hand,' et cetery. Oh, I tell you, she's grit; no end o' mettle. So, you see, I've struck a boulder, and it gets me bad, because I meant to see the parson through with his well here, and then go on to 'Frisco and get married. Now, if you'll help me through, and get me into sand and gravel again, and your man decides to settle in these parts, I'll guarantee you a number one well, good, even two-inch flow, and no expense but pipe and boardin' hands. I'll do it, by – some means."
"Oh, no, Colonel," I said, struggling with a laugh; "I couldn't allow that. It gives me great pleasure to advise you, only it's a very delicate matter, you know – and – really" (I was casting about wildly for an inspiration) "wouldn't it be better to go on to the city, as you intended, and ask the lady to go with you and exercise her own taste in selecting a ring?"
My companion took a step backward, folded his arms, and looked at me admiringly.
"Well, if it don't beat all how a woman walks through a millstone! Now that's what I call neat. Why, God bless you, madam, I've been boring at that thing for a week steady, night and day, by – myself, and making no headway. It makes me think of my mother. 'Robert,' she used to say (and she had a very small, trembly voice), – 'Robert, a woman's little finger weighs more than a man's whole carcass;' and she was right. I'll be – destroyed if she wasn't right!"
Esculapius laughed rather unnecessarily when I repeated this conversation to him.
"I am willing to allow that it's funny," I said; "but after all there is a rude pathos in the man, an untutored chivalry. Nearly every man loves and reverences a woman; but this man loves and reverences women. It is old-fashioned, I know, but it has a breezy sweetness of its own, like the lavender and rosemary of our grandmothers; don't you think so?"
There was no reply. I imagine that Esculapius is sensible at times of his want of ideality, and feels a delicacy in conversing with me. So I went on musingly: —
"With such natures love is an instinct; and it is to instinct, after all, that we must look for everything that is fresh and poetic in humanity. We have all made this sacrifice to culture, – a sacrifice of force to expression. Isn't it so, my love?"
Still no reply.
"I like to picture to myself the affection of which such a man is capable, for no doubt he loves this girl of whom he speaks; not, of course, as you – as you ought to love me, but with a rude, wild sincerity, a sort of rugged grandeur. Imagine him betrayed by her. A man of the world might grow white about the lips and sick at heart, but he would find relief in cynicism and bitter words. This man would act, – some wild, strange act of vengeance. The cultured nature is a honeycomb: his is a solid mass; and masses give us our most picturesque effects. Don't you think so, my dear?"
And still no reply.
"Esculapius!"
"Well, my love?"
"Isn't it barbarous of you not to answer when I speak to you?"
"Possibly; at least it has that appearance, but there are mitigating circumstances, my dear. I was asleep."