In course, in course, said McKinstry, nodding complacently. Shes a good woman in and around the ranch, and in any doins o this kind, he lightly waved his wounded arm in the air, there aint a better, tho I say it. She was Blair Rawlins darter; she and her brother Clay bein the only ones that kem out safe arter their twenty years fight with the McEntees in West Kaintuck. But she dont understand gals ez you and me do. Not that Im much, ez I orter be more kam. And the old woman jest sized the hull thing when she said SHE hadnt any hand in Cressys engagement. No more she had! And ez far ez that goes, no more did me, nor Seth Davis, nor Cressy. He paused, and lifting his heavy-lidded eyes to the master for the second time, said reflectively, Ye mustnt mind my tellin yeez betwixt man and manthat THE one ez is most responsible for the makin and breakin o that engagement is YOU!
Me! said the master in utter bewilderment.
You! repeated McKinstry quietly, reinstalling the hand Ford had attempted to withdraw. I aint sayin ye either knowd it or kalkilated on it. But it war so. Ef yed hark to me, and meander on a little, Ill tell ye HOW it war. I dont mind walkin a piece YOUR way, for if we go towards the ranch, and the hounds see me, theyll set up a racket and bring out the old woman, and then good-by to any confidential talk betwixt you and me. And Im, somehow, kammer out yer.
He moved slowly down the trail, still holding Fords arm confidentially, although, owing to his large protecting manner, he seemed to offer a ridiculous suggestion of supporting HIM with his wounded member.
When you first kem to Injin Spring, he began, Seth and Cressy was goin to school, boy and girl like, and nothin more. Theyd known each other from babiesthe Davises bein our neighbors in Kaintuck, and emigraten with us from St. Joe. Seth mout hev cottoned to Cress, and Cress to him, in course o time, and there wasnt anythin betwixt the families to hev kept em from marryin when they wanted. But there never war any words passed, and no engagement.
But, interrupted Ford hastily, my predecessor, Mr. Martin, distinctly told me that there was, and that it was with YOUR permission.
Thats only because you noticed suthin the first day you looked over the school with Martin. Dad, sez Cress to me, that new teachers very peart; and hes that keen about noticin me and Seth that I reckon youd better giv out that were engaged. But are you? sez I. Itll come to that in the end, sez Cress, and if that yer teacher hez come here with Northern ideas o society, its just ez well to let him see Injin Spring aint entirely in the woods about them things either. So I agreed, and Martin told you it was all right; Cress and Seth was an engaged couple, and you was to take no notice. And then YOU ups and objects to the hull thing, and allows that courtin in school, even among engaged pupils, aint proper.
The master turned his eyes with some uneasiness to the face of Cressys father. It was heavy but impassive.
I dont mind tellin you, now that its over, what happened. The trouble with me, Mr. Ford, isI aint kam! and YOU air, and thats what got me. For when I heard what youd said, I got on that mustang and started for the school-house to clean you out and giv you five minutes to leave Injin Spring. I dont know ez you remember that day. Id kalkilated my time so ez to ketch ye comin out o school, but I was too airly. I hung around out o sight, and then hitched my hoss to a buckeye and peeped inter the winder to hev a good look at ye. It was very quiet and kam. There was squirrels over the roof, yellow-jackets and bees dronin away, and kinder sleeping-like all around in the air, and jay-birds twitterin in the shingles, and they never minded me. You were movin up and down among them little gals and boys, liftin up their heads and talkin to em softly and quiet like, ez if you was one of them yourself. And they looked contented and kam. And onctI dont know if YOU remember ityou kem close up to the winder with your hands behind you, and looked out so kam and quiet and so far off, ez if everybody else outside the school was miles away from you. It kem to me then that Id given a heap to hev had the old woman see you thar. It kem to me, Mr. Ford, that there wasnt any place for ME thar; and it kem to me, tooand a little rough likethat mebbee there wasnt any place there for MY Cress either! So I rode away without disturbin you nor the birds nor the squirrels. Talkin with Cress that night, she said ez how it was a fair sample of what happened every day, and that youd always treated her fair like the others. So she allowed that shed go down to Sacramento, and get some things agin her and Seth bein married next month, and she reckoned she wouldnt trouble you nor the school agin. Hark till Ive done, Mr. Ford, he continued, as the young man made a slight movement of deprecation. Well, I agreed. But arter she got to Sacramento and bought some fancy fixins, she wrote to me and sez ez how shed been thinkin the hull thing over, and she reckoned that she and Seth were too young to marry, and the engagement had better be broke. And I broke it for her.
But how? asked the bewildered master.
Ginrally with this gun, returned McKinstry with slow gravity, indicating the rifle he was carrying, for I aint kam. I let on to Seths father that if I ever found Seth and Cressy together again, Id shoot him. It made a sort o coolness betwixt the families, and hez given some comfort to them low-down Harrisons; but even the law, I reckon, recognizes a fathers rights. And ez Cress sez, now ez Seths out o the way, thar aint no reason why she cant go back to school and finish her eddication. And I reckoned she was right. And we both agreed that ez shed left school to git them store clothes, it was only fair that shed give the school the benefit of em.
The case seemed more hopeless than ever. The master knew that the man beside him might hardly prove as lenient to a second objection at his hand. But that very reason, perhaps, impelled him, now that he knew his danger, to consider it more strongly as a duty, and his pride revolted from a possible threat underlying McKinstrys confidences. Nevertheless he began gently:
But you are quite sure you wont regret that you didnt avail yourself of this broken engagement, and your daughters outfitto send her to some larger boarding-school in Sacramento or San Francisco? Dont you think she may find it dull, and soon tire of the company of mere children when she has already known the excitement ofhe was about to say a lover, but checked himself, and added, a young girls freedom?
Mr. Ford, returned McKinstry, with the slow and fatuous misconception of a one-ideaed man, when I said just now that, lookin inter that kam, peaceful school of yours, I didnt find a place for Cress, it warnt because I didnt think she OUGHTER hev a place thar. Thar was that thar wot she never had ez a little girl with me and the old woman, and that she couldnt find ez a grownd up girl in any boarding-schoolthe home of a child; that kind o innocent foolishness that I sometimes reckon must hev slipped outer our emigrant wagon comin across the plains, or got left behind at St. Joe. She was a grownd girl fit to marry afore she was a child. She had young fellers a-sparkin her afore she ever played with em ez boy and girl. I dont mind tellin you that it wernt in the natur of Blair Rawlins darter to teach her own darter any better, for all shes been a mighty help to me. So if its all the same to you, Mr. Ford, we wont talk about a grownd up school; Id rather Cress be a little girl again among them other children. I should be a powerful sight more kam if I knowed that when I was away huntin stock or fightin stakes with them Harrisons, that she was a settin there with them and the birds and the bees, and listenin to them and to you. Mebbee theres been a little too many scrimmages goin on round the ranch sence shes been a child; mebbee she orter know suthin more of a man than a feller who sparks her and fights for her.
The master was silent. Had this dull, narrow-minded partisan stumbled upon a truth that had never dawned upon his own broader comprehension? Had this selfish savage and literally red-handed frontier brawler been moved by some dumb instinct of the power of gentleness to understand his daughters needs better than he? For a moment he was staggered. Then he thought of Cressys later flirtations with Joe Masters, and her concealment of their meeting from her mother. Had she deceived her father also? Or was not the father deceiving him with this alternate suggestion of threat and of kindlinessof power and weakness. He had heard of this cruel phase of Southwestern cunning before. With the feeble sophistry of the cynic he mistrusted the good his scepticism could not understand. Howbeit, glancing sideways at the slumbering savagery of the man beside him, and his wounded hand, he did not care to show his lack of confidence. He contented himself with that equally feeble resource of weak humanity in such casesgood-natured indifference. All right, he said carelessly; Ill see what can be done. But are you quite sure you are fit to go home alone? Shall I accompany you? As McKinstry waived the suggestion with a gesture, he added lightly, as if to conclude the interview, Ill report progress to you from time to time, if you like.
To ME, emphasized McKinstry; not over THAR, indicating the ranch. But prhaps you wouldnt mind my ridin by and lookin in at the school-room winder onct in a while? Ahyou WOULD, he added, with the first deepening of color he had shown. Well, never mind.
You see it might distract the children from their lessons, explained the master gently, who had however contemplated with some concern the infinite delight which a glimpse of McKinstrys fiery and fatuous face at the window would awaken in Johnny Filgees infant breast.
Well, no matter! returned McKinstry slowly. Ye dont keer, I spose, to come over to the hotel and take suthin? A julep or a smash?
I shouldnt think of keeping you a moment longer from Mrs. McKinstry, said the master, looking at his companions wounded hand. Thank you all the same. Good-by.
They shook hands, McKinstry transferring his rifle to the hollow of his elbow to offer his unwounded left. The master watched him slowly resume his way towards the ranch. Then with a half uneasy and half pleasurable sense that he had taken some step whose consequences were more important than he would at present understand, he turned in the opposite direction to the school-house. He was so preoccupied that it was not until he had nearly reached it that he remembered Uncle Ben. With an odd recollection of McKinstrys previous performance, he approached the school from the thicket in the rear and slipped noiselessly to the open window with the intention of looking in. But the school-house, far from exhibiting that kam and studious abstraction which had so touched the savage breast of McKinstry, was filled with the accents of youthful and unrestrained vituperation. The voice of Rupert Filgee came sharply to the masters astonished ears.
You neednt try to play off Dobell or Mitchell on MEyou hear! Much YOU know of either, dont you? Look at that copy. If Johnny couldnt do better than that, Id lick him. Of course its the penit aint your stodgy fingersoh, no! Praps youd like to hev a few more boxes o quills and gold pens and Gillotts best thrown in, for two bits a lesson? I tell you what! Ill throw up the contract in another minit! There goes another quill busted! Look here, what YOU want aint a pen, but a clothes-pin and a split nail! Thatll about jibe with your dilikit gait.
The master at once stepped to the window and, unobserved, took a quick survey of the interior. Following some ingenious idea of his own regarding fitness, the beautiful Filgee had induced Uncle Ben to seat himself on the floor before one of the smallest desks, presumably his brothers, in an attitude which, while it certainly gave him considerable elbow-room for those contortions common to immature penmanship, offered his youthful instructor a superior eminence, from which he hovered, occasionally swooping down upon his grown-up pupil like a mischievous but graceful jay. But Mr. Fords most distinct impression was that, far from resenting the derogatory position and the abuse that accompanied it, Uncle Ben not only beamed upon his persecutor with unquenchable good humor, but with undisguised admiration, and showed not the slightest inclination to accept his proposed resignation.
Go slow, Roop, he said cheerfully. You was onct a boy yourself. Natrally I kalkilate to stand all the damages. Youve got ter waste some powder over a blast like this yer, way down to the bed rock. Next time Ill bring my own pens.
Do. Some from the Dobell school you uster go to, suggested the darkly ironical Rupert. They was iron-clad injin-rubber, warnt they?
Never you mind wot they were, said Uncle Ben good-humoredly. Look at that string of Cs in that line. Theres nothing mean about THEM.
He put his pen between his teeth, raised himself slowly on his legs, and shading his eyes with his hand from the severe perspective of six feet, gazed admiringly down upon his work. Rupert, with his hands in his pockets and his back to the window, cynically assisted at the inspection.
Wots that sick worm at the bottom of the page? he asked.
Wot might you think it wos? said Uncle Ben beamingly.
Looks like one o them snake roots you dig up with a little mud stuck to it, returned Rupert critically.
Thats my name.
They both stood looking at it with their heads very much on one side. It aint so bad as the rest youve done. It MIGHT be your name. That ez, it dont look like anythin else, suggested Rupert, struck with a new idea that it was perhaps more professional occasionally to encourage his pupil. You might get on in course o time. But what are you doin all this for? he asked suddenly.
Doin what?
This yer comin to school when you aint sent, and you aint got no call to goyou, a grown-up man!
The color deepened in Uncle Bens face to the back of his ears. Wot would you giv to know, Roop? Spose I reckoned some day to make a strike and sorter drop inter saciety easyeh? Spose I wanted to be ready to keep up my end with the other fellers, when the time kem? To be able to sling potry and read novels and sicheh?
An expression of infinite and unutterable scorn dawned in the eyes of Rupert. You do? Well, he repeated with slow and cutting deliberation, Ill tell you what youre comin here for, and the only thing that makes you come.