Harvester — THE BETTER MAN
CHAPTER XVIII. THE BETTER MAN
In the middle of the afternoon the Harvester arose and went into the lake, ate a hearty dinner, and then took up his watch again.
For two days and nights he kept his place, until he had the Girl out of danger, and where careful nursing was all that was required to insure life and health.
As he sat beside her the last day, his physical endurance strained to the breaking point, she laid her hand over his, and looked long and steadily into his eyes.
“There are so many things I want to know,” she said.
The Harvester's firm fingers closed over hers.
“Ruth, have you ever been sorry that you trusted me?
” “Never!
” said the Girl instantly.
“Then suppose you keep it up,” said he.
“Whatever it is that you want to know, don't use an iota of strength to talk or to think about it now.
Just say to yourself, he loves me well enough to do what is right, and I know that he will.
All you have to do is to be patient until you grow stronger than you ever have been in your life, and then you shall have exactly what you want, Ruth.
Sleep like a baby for a week or two.
Then, slowly and gradually, we will build up such a constitution for you that you shall ride, drive, row, swim, dance, play, and have all that your girlhood has missed in fun and frolic, and all that your womanhood craves in love and companionship.
Happiness has come at last, Ruth.
Take it from me.
Everything you crave is yours.
The love you want, the home, and the life.
As soon as you are strong enough, you shall know all about it.
Your business is to drink stimulants and sleep now, dear.
” “So tired of this bed!
” “It won't be long until you can lie on the couch and the veranda swing again.
” “Glory!
” said the Girl.
“David, I must have been full of fever for a long time.
I can't remember everything.
” “Don't try, I tell you.
Life is coming out right for you; that's all you need know now.
” “And for you, David?
” “Whenever things are right for you, they are for me, Ruth.
” “Don't you ever think of yourself?
” “Not when I am close you.
” “Ah!
Then I shall have to grow strong very soon and think of you.
” The Harvester's smile was pathetic.
He was unspeakably tired again.
“Never mind me!
” he said.
“Only get well.
” “David, was there a little horse?
” “There certainly was and is,” said the Harvester.
“You had not named him yet, but in a few days I can lead him to the window.
” “Was there something said about a boat?
” “Two of them.
” “Two?
” “Yes.
A row boat for you, and a launch that will take you all over the lake with only the exertion of steering on your part.
” “David, I want my pendant and ring.
I am so tired of lying here, I want to play with them.
” “Where do you keep them, Ruth?
” “In the willow teapot.
I thought no one would look there.
” The Harvester laughed and brought the little boxes.
He had to open them, but the Girl put on the ring and asked him if he would not help her with the pendant.
He slipped the thread around her neck and clasped it.
With a sigh of satisfaction she took the ornament in one hand and closed her eyes.
He thought she was falling asleep, but presently she looked at him.
“You won't allow them to take it from me?
” “Indeed no!
There is no reason on earth why you should not have that thread around your neck if you want it.
” “I am going to sleep now.
I want two things.
May I have them?
” “You may,” said the Harvester promptly, “provided they are not to eat.
” “No,” said the Girl.
“I've suffered and made others trouble.
I won't bother you by asking for anything more than is brought me.
This is different.
You are completely worn out.
Your face frightens me, David, and white hairs that were not there a few days ago have come along your temples.
I can see them.
” “You gave me a mighty serious scare, Ruth.
” “I know,” said the Girl.
“Forgive me.
I didn't mean to.
I want you to leave me to Doctor Harmon and the nurse and go sleep a week.
Then I will be ready for the swing, and to hear some more about the trees and birds.
” “I can keep it up if you really need me, but if you don't I am sleepy.
So, if you feel safe, I think I will go.
” “Oh I am safe enough,” said the Girl.
“It isn't that.
I'm so lonely.
I've made up my mind not to grieve for mother, but I miss her so now.
I
feel so friendless.
” “But, honey,” said the Harvester, “you mustn't do that!
Don't you see how all of us love you?
Here is Granny shutting up her house and living here, just to be with you.
The nurse will do anything you say.
Here is the man you know best, and think so much of, staying in the cabin, and so happy to give you all his time, and anything else you will have, dear.
And the Careys come every day, and will do their best to comfort you, and always I am here for you to fall back on.
” “Yes, I'm falling right now,” said the Girl.
“I almost wish I had the fever again.
No one has touched me for days.
I feel as if every one was afraid of me.
” The Harvester was puzzled.
“Well, Ruth, I'm doing the best I know,” he said.
“What is it you want?
” “Nothing!
” answered the Girl with slightly dejected inflection.
“Say good-bye to me, and go sleep your week.
I'll be very good, and then you shall take me a drive up the hill when you awaken.
Won't that be fine?
” “Say good-bye to me!
” She felt a “little lonely!
” They all acted as if they were “afraid” of her.
The Harvester indulged in a flashing mental review and arrived at a decision.
He knelt beside the bed, took both slender, cool hands and covered them with kisses.
Then he slid a hand under the pillow and raised the tired head.
“If I am to say good-bye, I have to do it in my own way, Ruth,” he said.
Thereupon he began at the tumbled mass of hair and kissed from her forehead to her lips, kisses warm and tender.
“Now you go to sleep, and grow strong enough by the time I come back to tell me whom you love,” he said, and went from the room without waiting for any reply.
With short intervals for food and dips in the lake the Harvester very nearly slept the week.
When he finally felt himself again, he bathed, shaved, dressed freshly, and went to see the Girl.
He had to touch her to be sure she was real.
She was extremely weak and tremulous, but her face and hands were fuller, her colour was good, she was ravenously hungry.
Doctor Harmon said she was a little tryant, and the nurse that she was plain cross.
The first thing the Harvester noticed was that the dull blue look in the depth of the dark eyes was gone.
They were clear, dusky wells, with shining lights at the bottom.
“Well I never would have believed it!
” he cried.
“Doctor Harmon, you are a great physician!
You have made her all over new, and in a few more days she will be on the veranda.
This is great!
” “Do I appear so much better to you, Harvester?
” asked the Girl.
“Has no one thought to show you,” cried the Harvester.
“Here, let me!
” He stepped to her dressing table, picked up a mirror, and held it before her so that she could see herself.
“Seems to me I am dreadfully white and thin yet!
” “If you had seen what I saw ten days ago, my Girl, you would think you appear like a pink, rosy angel now, or a wonderful dream.
” “Truly, do I in the least resemble a dream, David?
” “You are a dream.
The loveliest one a man ever had.
With three months of right care and exercise you'll be the beautiful woman nature intended.
I'm so proud of you.
You are being so brave!
Just lie there in patience a few more days, and out you come again to life; and life that will thrill your being with joy.
” “All right,” said the Girl, “I will.
David are you attending to your herbs?
” “Not for a few weeks.
” “You are very much behind?
” “No. Nothing important.
I don't make enough to count on what is ready now.
I can soon gather jimson leaves and seed to fill orders, the hemlock is about right to take the fruit, the mustard is yet in pod, and the saffron and wormseed can be attended later.
I can catch up in two days.
” “What about----about the big bed on the hill?
” The Harvester experienced an inward thrill of delight.
She was so impressed with the value of the ginseng she would not mention it, even before the man she loved----no more than that----“adored”---- “worshipped!
” He smiled at her in understanding.
“I'll have to take a peep at that and report,” he said.
“Are you rested now?
” “Indeed yes!
” “You are dreadfully thin.
” “I always am.
I'll pick up a little when I get back to work.
” “David, I want you to go to work now.
” “Can you spare me?
” “Haven't we done well these last few days?
” “I can't tell you how well.
” “Then please go gather everything you need to fill orders except the big bed, and by that time maybe you could take another week off, and I could go to the hill top and on the lake.
I'm so anxious to put my feet on the earth.
They feel so dead.
” “Are your feet well rubbed to draw down the circulation?
” “They are rubbed shiny and almost skinned, David.
No one ever had better care, of that I am sure.
Go gather what you should have.
” “All right,” said the Harvester.
He arose and as he started to leave the room he took one last look at the Girl to see if he could detect anything he could suggest for her comfort, and read a message in her eyes.
Instantly there was an answering flash in his.
“I'll be back in a minute,” he said.
“I just noticed discorea villosa has the finest rattle boxes formed.
I've been waiting to show you.
And the hop tree has its castanets all green and gold.
In a few more weeks it will begin to play for you.
I'll bring you some.
” Soon he returned with the queer seed formations, and as he bent above her, with his back to Doctor Harmon, he whispered, “What is it?
” Her lips barely formed the one word, “Hurry!
” The Harvester straightened.
“All comfortable, Ruth?
” he asked casually.
“Yes.
” “You understand, of course, that there is not the slightest necessity for my going to work if you really want me for anything, even if it's nothing more than to have me within calling distance, in case you SHOULD want something.
The whole lot I can gather now won't amount to twenty dollars.
It's merely a matter of pride with me to have what is called for.
I'd much rather remain, if you can use me in any way at all.
” “Twenty dollars is considerable, when expenses are as heavy as now.
And it's worth more than any money to you not to fail when orders come.
I
have learned that, and David, I don't want you to either.
You must fill all demands as usual.
I wouldn't forgive myself this winter if you should be forced to send orders only partly filled because I fell ill and hindered you.
Please go and gather all you possibly will need of everything you take at this season, only remember!
” “There is no danger of my forgetting.
If you are going to send me away to work, you will allow me to kiss your hand before I go, fair lady?
” He did it fervently.
“One word with you, Harmon,” he said as he left the room.
Doctor Harmon arose and followed him to the gold garden, and together they stood beside the molten hedge of sunflowers, coneflowers, elecampane, and jewel flower.
“I merely want to mention that this is your inning,” said the Harvester.
“Find out if you are essential to the Girl's happiness as soon as you can, and the day she tells me so, I will file her petition and take a trip to the city to study some little chemical quirks that bother me.
That's all.
” The Harvester went to the dry-house for bags and clipping shears, and the doctor returned to the sunshine room.
“Ruth,” he said, “do you know that the Harvester is the squarest man I ever met?
” “Is he?
” asked the Girl.
“He is!
He certainly is!
” “You must remember that I have little acquaintance with men,” said she.
“You are the first one I ever knew, and the only one except him.
” “Well I try to be square,” said Doctor Harmon, “but that is where Langston has me beaten a mile.
I have to try.
He doesn't. He was born that way.
” The Girl began to laugh.
“His environment is so different,” she said.
“Perhaps if he were in a big city, he would have to try also.
” “Won't do!
” said the doctor.
“He chose his location.
So did I. He is a stronger physical man than I ever was or ever will be.
The struggle that bound him to the woods and to research, that made him the master of forces that give back life, when a man like Carey says it is the end, proves him a master.
The tumult in his soul must have been like a cyclone in his forest, when he turned his back on the world and stuck to the woods.
Carey told me about it.
Some day you must hear.
It's a story a woman ought to know in order to arrive at proper values.
You never will understand the man until you know that he is clean where most of us are blackened with ugly sins we have no right on God's footstool to commit and not so much reason as he.
Every man should be as he is, but very few are.
Carey says Langston's mother was a wonderful element in the formation of his character; but all mothers are anxious, and none of them can build with no foundation and no soul timber.
She had material for a man to her hand, or she couldn't have made one.
” “I see what you mean.
” “So far as any inexperienced girl ever sees,” said the doctor.
“Some day if you live to fifty you will know, but you can't comprehend it now.
” “If you think I lived all my life in Chicago's poverty spots and don't know unbridled human nature!
” “I found you and your mother unusually innocent women.
You may understand some things.
I hope you do.
It will help you to decide who is the real man among the men who come into your life.
There are some men, Ruth, who are fit to mate with a woman, and to perpetuate themselves and their mental and moral forces in children, who will be like them, and there are others who are not.
It is these 'others' who are responsible for the sin of the world, the sickness and suffering.
Any time you are sure you have a chance at a moral man, square and honest, in control of his brain and body, if you are a wise woman, Ruth, stick to him as the limpet to the rock.
” “You mean stick to the Harvester?
” “If you are a wise woman!
” “When was a woman ever wise?
” “A few have been.
They are the only care-free, really happy ones of the world, the only wives without a big, poison, blue-bottle fly in their ointment.
” “I detest flies!
” said the Girl.
“So do I,” said the doctor.
“For this reason I say to you choose the ointment that never had one in it.
Take the man who is 'master of his fate, captain of his soul.'
Stick to the Harvester!
He is infinitely the better man!
” “Well have you seen anything to indicate that I wasn't sticking?
” asked the Girl.
“No. And for your sake I hope I never will.
” She laughed softly.
“You do love him, Ruth?
” “As I did my mother, yes.
There is not a trace in my heart of the thing he calls love.
” “You have been stunted, warped, and the fountains of life never have opened.
It will come with right conditions of living.
” “Do you think so?
” “I know so.
At least there is no one else you love, Ruth?
” “No one except you.
” “And do you feel about me just as you do him?
” “No!
It is different.
What I owe him is for myself.
What I owe you is for my mother.
You saw!
You know!
You understand what you did for her, and what it meant to me.
The Harvester must be the finest man on earth, but when I try to think of either God or Heaven, your face intervenes.
” “That's all right, Ruth, I'm so glad you told me,” said Doctor Harmon.
“I can make it all perfectly clear to you.
You just go on and worship me all you please.
It's bound to make a cleaner, better man of me.
What you feel for me will hold me to a higher moral level all my life than I ever have known before; but never forget that you are not going to live in Heaven.
You will be here at least sixty years yet, so when you come to think of selecting a partner for the relations of the world, you stick to the finest man on earth; see?
” “I do!
” said the Girl.
“I saw you kiss Molly a week ago.
She is lovely, and I hope you will be perfectly happy.
It won't interfere with my worshipping you; not the least in the world.
Go ahead and be joyful!
” The doctor sprang to his feet in crimson confusion.
The Girl lay and laughed at him.
“Don't!
” she cried.
“It's all right!
It takes a weight off my soul as heavy as a mountain.
I do adore you, as I said.
But every hour since I left Chicago a big, black cloud has hung over me.
I didn't feel free.
I didn't feel absolved.
I felt that my obligations to you were so heavy that when I had settled the last of the money debt I was in honour bound----” “Don't, Ruth!
Forget those dreadful times, as I told you then!
Think only of a happy future!
” “Let me finish,” said the Girl.
