Harvester — A VERTICAL SPINE part2
For the next three days the Harvester worked in the woods and he kept the Girl with him every minute.
By the end of that time he really had persuaded himself that it was merely curiosity.
So through the cooling fall days they worked together.
They were very happy.
Before her wondering eyes the Harvester hung queer branches, burs, nuts, berries, and trailing vines with curious seed pods.
There were masses of brilliant flowers, most of them strange to the Girl, many to the great average of humanity.
While she sat bending over them, beside her the Harvester delved in the black earth of the woods, or the clay and sand of the open hillside, or the muck of the lake shore, and lifted large bagfuls of roots that he later drenched on the floating raft on the lake, and when they had drained he dried them.
Some of them he did not wet, but scraped and wiped clean and dry.
Often after she was sleeping, and long before she awoke in the morning, he was at work carry-ing heaped trays from the evaporator to the store-room, and tying the roots, leaves, bark, and seeds into packages.
While he gathered trillium roots the Girl made drawings of the plant and learned its commercial value.
She drew lady's slipper and Solomon's seal, and learned their uses and prices; and carefully traced wild ginger leaves while nibbling the aromatic root.
It was difficult to keep from protesting when the work carried them around the lake shore and to the pokeberry beds, for the colour of these she loved.
It required careful explanation as to the value of the roots and seeds as blood purifier, and the argument that in a few more days the frost would level the bed, to induce her to consent to its harvesting.
But when the case was properly presented, she put aside her drawing and stained her slender fingers gathering the seeds, and loved the work.
The sun was golden on the lake, the birds of the upland were clustering over reeds and rushes, for the sake of plentiful seed and convenient water.
Many of them sang fitfully, the notes of almost all of them were melodious, and the day was a long, happy dream.
There was but little left to gather until ginseng time.
For that the Harvester had engaged several boys to help him, for the task of digging the roots, washing and drying them, burying part of the seeds and preparing the remainder for market seemed endless for one man to attempt.
After a full day the Harvester lay before the fire, and his head was so close the Girl's knee that her fingers were in reach of his hair.
Every time he mended the fire he moved a little, until he could feel the touch of her garments against him.
Then he began to plan for the winter; how they would store food for the long, cold days, how much fuel would be required, when they would go to the city for their winter clothing, what they would read, and how they would work together at the drawings.
“I am almost too anxious to wait longer to get back to my carving,” he said.
“Whoever would have thought this spring that fall would come and find the birds talking of going, the caterpillars spinning winter quarters, the animals holing up, me getting ready for the cold, and your candlesticks not finished.
Winter is when you really need them.
Then there is solid cheer in numbers of candles and a roaring wood fire.
The furnace is going to be a good thing to keep the floors and the bathroom warm, but an open fire of dry, crackling wood is the only rational source of heat in a home.
You must watch for the fairy dances on the backwall, Ruth, and learn to trace goblin faces in the coals.
Sometimes there is a panorama of temples and trees, and you will find exquisite colour in the smoke.
Dry maple makes a lovely lavender, soft and fine as a floating veil, and damp elm makes a blue, and hickory red and yellow.
I almost can tell which wood is burning after the bark is gone, by the smoke and flame colour.
When the little red fire fairies come out and dance on the backwall it is fun to figure what they are celebrating.
By the way, Ruth, I have been a lamb for days.
I hope you have observed!
But I would sleep a little sounder to-night if you only could give me a hint whether that kiss is coming on at all.
” He tipped back his head to see her face, and it was glorious in the red firelight; the big eyes never appeared so deep and dark.
The tilted head struck her hand, and her fingers ran through his hair.
“You said to forget it,” she reminded him, “and then it would come sooner.
” “Which same translated means that it is not here yet.
Well, I didn't expect it, so I am not disappointed; but begorry, I do wish it would materialize by Christmas.
I think I will work for that.
Wouldn't it make a day worth while, though?
By the way, what do you want for Christmas, Ruth?
” “A doll,” she answered.
The Harvester laughed.
He tipped his head again to see her face and suddenly grew quiet, for it was very serious.
“I am quite in earnest,” she said.
“I think the big dolls in the stores are beautiful, and I never owned only a teeny little one.
All my life I've wanted a big doll as badly as I ever longed for anything that was not absolutely necessary to keep me alive.
In fact, a doll is essential to a happy childhood.
The mother instinct is so ingrained in a girl that if she doesn't have dolls to love, even as a baby, she is deprived of a part of her natural rights.
It's a pitiful thing to have been the little girl in the picture who stands outside the window and gazes with longing soul at the doll she is anxious to own and can't ever have.
Harvester, I was always that little girl.
I am quite in earnest.
I want a big, beautiful doll more than anything else.
” As she talked the Girl's fingers were idly threading the Harvester's hair.
His head lightly touched her knee, and she shifted her position to afford him a comfortable resting place.
With a thrill of delight that shook him, the man laid his head in her lap and looked into the fire, his face glowing as a happy boy's. “You shall have the loveliest doll that money can buy, Ruth,” he promised.
“What else do you want?
” “A roasted goose, plum pudding, and all those horrid indigestible things that Christmas stories always tell about; and popcorn balls, and candy, and everything I've always wanted and never had, and a long beautiful day with you.
That's all!
” “Ruth, I'm so happy I almost wish I could go to Heaven right now before anything occurs to spoil this,” said the Harvester.
The wheels of a car rattled across the bridge.
He whirled to his knees, and put his arms around the Girl.
“Ruth,” he said huskily.
“I'll wager a thousand dollars I know what is coming.
Hug me tight, quick!
and give me the best kiss you can----any old kind of a one, so you touch my lips with yours before I've got to open that door and let in trouble.
” The Girl threw her arms around his neck and with the imprint of her lips warm on his the Harvester crossed the room, and his heart dropped from the heights with a thud.
He stepped out, closing the door behind him, and crossing the veranda, passed down the walk.
He recognized the car as belonging to a garage in Onabasha, and in it sat two men, one of whom spoke.
“Are you David Langston?
” “Yes,” said the Harvester.
“Did you send a couple of photographs to a New York detective agency a few days ago with inquiries concerning some parties you wanted located?
” “I did,” said the Harvester.
“But I was not expecting any such immediate returns.
” “Your questions touched on a case that long has been in the hands of the agency, and they telegraphed the parties.
The following day the people had a letter, giving them the information they required, from another source.
” “That is where Uncle Henry showed his fine Spencerian hand,” commented the Harvester.
“It always will be a great satisfaction that I got my fist in first.
” “Is Miss Jameson here?
” “No,” said the Harvester.
“My wife is at home.
Her surname was Ruth Jameson, but we have been married since June.
Did you wish to speak with Mrs. Langston?
” “I came for that purpose.
My name is Kennedy.
I am the law partner and the closest friend of the young lady's grandfather.
News of her location has prostrated her grandmother so that he could not leave her, and I was sent to bring the young woman.
” “Oh!
” said the Harvester.
“Well you will have to interview her about that.
One word first.
She does not know that I sent those pictures and made that inquiry.
One other word.
She is just recovering from a case of fever, induced by wrong conditions of life before I met her.
She is not so strong as she appears.
Understand you are not to be abrupt.
Go very gently!
Her feelings and health must be guarded with extreme care.
” The Harvester opened the door, and as she saw the stranger, the Girl's eyes widened, and she arose and stood waiting.
“Ruth,” said the Harvester, “this is a man who has been making quite a search for you, and at last he has you located.
” The Harvester went to the Girl's side, and put a reinforcing arm around her.
“Perhaps he brings you some news that will make life most interesting and very lovely for you.
Will you shake hands with Mr. Kennedy?
” The Girl suddenly straightened to unusual height.
“I will hear why he has been making 'quite a search for me,' and on whose authority he has me 'located,' first,” she said.
A diabolical grin crossed the face of the Harvester, and he took heart.
“Then please be seated, Mr. Kennedy,” he said, “and we will talk over the matter.
As I understand, you are a representative of my wife's people.
” The Girl stared at the Harvester.
“Take your chair, Ruth, and meet this as a matter of course,” he advised casually.
“You always have known that some day it must come.
You couldn't look in the face of those photographs of your mother in her youth and not realize that somewhere hearts were aching and breaking, and brains were busy in a search for her.
” The Girl stood rigid.
“I want it distinctly understood,” she said, “that I have no use on earth for my mother's people.
They come too late.
I absolutely refuse to see or to hold any communication with them.
” “But young lady, that is very arbitrary!
” cried Mr. Kennedy.
“You don't understand!
They are a couple of old people, and they are slowly dying of broken hearts!
” “Not so badly broken or they wouldn't die slowly,” commented the Girl grimly.
“The heart that was really broken was my mother's. The torture of a starved, overworked body and hopeless brain was hers.
There was nothing slow about her death, for she went out with only half a life spent, and much of that in acute agony, because of their negligence.
David, you often have said that this is my home.
I choose to take you at your word.
Will you kindly tell this man that he is not welcome in this house, and I wish him to leave it at once?
” The Harvester stepped back, and his face grew very white.
“I can't, Ruth,” he said gently.
“Why not?
” “Because I brought him here.
” “You brought him here!
You!
David, are you crazy?
You!
” “It is through me that he came.
” The Girl caught the mantel for support.
“Then I stand alone again,” she said.
“Harvester, I had thought you were on my side.
” “I am at your feet,” said the man in a broken voice.
“Ruth dear, will you let me explain?
” “There is only one explanation, and with what you have done for me fresh in my mind, I can't put it into words.
” “Ruth, hear me!
” “I must!
You force me!
But before you speak understand this: Not now, or through all eternity, do I forgive the inexcusable neglect that drove my mother to what I witnessed and was helpless to avert.
” “My dear!
My dear!
” said the Harvester, “I had hoped the woods had done a more perfect work in your heart.
Your mother is lying in state now, Girl, safe from further suffering of any kind; and if I read aright, her tired face and shrivelled frame were eloquent of forgiveness.
Ruth dear, if she so loved them that her heart was broken and she died for them, think what they are suffering!
Have some mercy on them.
” “Get this very clear, David,” said the Girl.
“She died of hunger for food.
Her heart was not so broken that she couldn't have lived a lifetime, and got much comfort out of it, if her body had not lacked sustenance.
Oh I was so happy a minute ago.
David, why did you do this thing?
” The Harvester picked up the Girl, placed her in a chair, and knelt beside her with his arms around her.
“Because of the PAIN IN THE WORLD, Ruth,” he said simply.
“Your mother is sleeping sweetly in the long sleep that knows neither anger nor resentment; and so I was forced to think of a gentle-faced, little old mother whose heart is daily one long ache, whose eyes are dim with tears, and a proud, broken old man who spends his time trying to comfort her, when his life is as desolate as hers.
” “How do you know so wonderfully much about their aches and broken hearts?
” “Because I have seen their faces when they were happy, Ruth, and so I know what suffering would do to them.
There were pictures of them and letters in the bottom of that old trunk.
I searched it the other night and found them; and by what life has done to your mother and to you, I can judge what it is now bringing them.
Never can you be truly happy, Ruth, until you have forgiven them, and done what you can to comfort the remainder of their lives.
I did it because of the pain in the world, my girl.
” “What about my pain?
” “The only way on earth to cure it is through forgiveness.
That, and that only, will ease it all away, and leave you happy and free for life and love.
So long as you let this rancour eat in your heart, Ruth, you are not, and never can be, normal.
You must forgive them, dear, hear what they have to say, and give them the comfort of seeing what they can discover of her in you.
Then your heart will be at rest at last, your soul free, you can take your rightful place in life, and the love you crave will awaken in your heart.
Ruth, dear you are the acme of gentleness and justice.
Be just and gentle now!
Give them their chance!
My heart aches, and always will ache for the pain you have known, but nursing and brooding over it will not cure it.
It is going to take a heroic operation to cut it out, and I chose to be the surgeon.
You have said that I once saved your body from pain Ruth, trust me now to free your soul.
” “What do you want?
” “I want you to speak kindly to this man, who through my act has come here, and allow him to tell you why he came.
Then I want you to do the kind and womanly thing your duty suggests that you should.
” “David, I don t understand you!
” “That is no difference,” said the Harvester.
“The point is, do you TRUST me?
” The Girl hesitated.
“Of course I do,” she said at last.
“Then hear what your grandfather's friend has come to say for him, and forget yourself in doing to others as you would have them----really, Ruth, that is all of religion or of life worth while.
Go on, Mr. Kennedy.
” The Harvester drew up a chair, seated himself beside the Girl, and taking one of her hands, he held it closely and waited.
“I was sent here by my law partner and my closest friend, Mr. Alexander Herron, of Philadelphia,” said the stranger.
“Both he and Mrs. Herron were bitterly opposed to your mother's marriage, because they knew life and human nature, and there never is but one end to men such as she married.
” “You may omit that,” said the Girl coldly.
“Simply state why you are here.
” “In response to an inquiry from your husband concerning the originals of some photographs he sent to a detective agency in New York.
They have had the case for years, and recognizing the pictures as a clue, they telegraphed Mr. Herron.
The prospect of news after years of fruitless searching so prostrated Mrs. Herron that he dared not leave her, and he sent me.
” “Kindly tell me this,” said the Girl.
“Where were my mother's father and mother for the four years immediately following her marriage?
” “They went to Europe to avoid the humiliation of meeting their friends.
There, in Italy, Mrs. Herron developed a fever, and it was several years before she could be brought home.
She retired from society, and has been confined to her room ever since.
When they could return, a search was instituted at once for their daughter, but they never have been able to find a trace.
They have hunted through every eastern city they thought might contain her.
” “And overlooked a little insignificant place like Chicago, of course.
” “I myself conducted a personal search there, and visited the home of every Jameson in the directory or who had mail at the office or of whom I could get a clue of any sort.
” “I don't suppose two women in a little garret room would be in the directory, and there never was any mail.
” “Did your mother ever appeal to her parents?
” “She did,” said the Girl.
“She admitted that she had been wrong, asked their forgiveness, and begged to go home.
That was in the second year of her marriage, and she was in Cleveland.
Afterward she went to Chicago, from there she wrote again.
” “Her father and mother were in Italy fighting for the mother's life, two years after that.
It is very easy to become lost in a large city.
Criminals do it every day and are never found, even with the best detectives on their trail.
I am very sorry about this.
My friends will be broken-hearted.
At any time they would have been more than delighted to have had their daughter return.
A letter on the day following the message from the agency brought news that she was dead, and now their only hope for any small happiness at the close of years of suffering lies with you.
I was sent to plead with you to return with me at once and make them a visit.
Of course, their home is yours.
You are their only heir, and they would be very happy if you were free, and would remain permanently with them.
” “How do they know I will not be like the father they so detested?
” “They had sufficient cause to dislike him.
They have every reason to love and welcome you.
They are consumed with anxiety.
Will you come?
” “No. This is for me to decide.
I do not care for them or their property.
Always they have failed me when my distress was unspeakable.
Now there is only one thing I ask of life, more than my husband has given me, and if that lay in his power I would have it.
You may go back and tell them that I am perfectly happy.
I have everything I need.
They can give me nothing I want, not even their love.
Perhaps, sometime, I will go to see them for a few days, if David will go with me.
” “Young woman, do you realize that you are issuing a death sentence?
” asked the lawyer gently.
“It is a just one.
” “I do not believe your husband agrees with you.
I know I do not.
Mrs. Herron is a tiny old lady, with a feeble spark of vitality left; and with all her strength she is clinging to life, and pleading with it to give her word of her only child before she goes out unsatisfied.
She knows that her daughter is gone, and now her hopes are fastened on you.
If for only a few days, you certainly must go with me.
” “I will not!
” The lawyer turned to the Harvester.
“She will be ready to start with you to-morrow morning, on the first train north,” said the Harvester.
“We will meet you at the station at eight.
” “I----I am afraid I forgot to tell my driver to wait.
” “You mean your instructions were not to let the Girl out of your sight,” said the Harvester.
“Very well!
We have comfortable rooms.
I will show you to one.
Please come this way.
” The Harvester led the guest to the lake room and arranged for the night.
Then he went to the telephone and sent a message to an address he had been furnished, asking for an immediate reply.
It went to Philadelphia and contained a description of the lawyer, and asked if he had been sent by Mr. Herron to escort his grand-daughter to his home.
When the Harvester returned to the living-room the Girl, white and defiant, waited before the fire.
He knelt beside her and put his arms around her, but she repulsed him; so he sat on the rug and looked at her.
“No wonder you felt sure you knew what that was!
” she cried bitterly.
“Ruth, if you will allow me to lift the bottom of that old trunk, and if you will read any one of the half dozen letters I read, you will forgive me, and begin making preparations to go.
” “It's a wonder you don't hold them before me and force me to read them,” she said.
“Don't say anything you will be sorry for after you are gone, dear.
” “I'm not going!
” “Oh yes you are!
” “Why?
” “Because it is right that you should, and right is inexorable.
Also, because I very much wish you to; you will do it for me.
” “Why do you want me to go?
” “I have three strong reasons: First, as I told you, it is the only thing that will cleanse your heart of bitterness and leave it free for the tenanting of a great and holy love.
Next, I think they honestly made every effort to find your mother, and are now growing old in despair you can lighten, and you owe it to them and yourself to do it.
Lastly, for my sake.
I've tried everything I know, Ruth, and I can't make you love me, or bring you to a realizing sense of it if you do.
So before I saw that chest I had planned to harvest my big crop, and try with all my heart while I did it, and if love hadn't come then, I meant to get some one to stay with you, and I was going away to give you a free perspective for a time.
I meant to plead that I needed a few weeks with a famous chemist I know to prepare me better for my work.
My real motive was to leave you, and let you see if absence could do anything for me in your heart.
You've been very nearly the creature of my hands for months, my girl; whatever any one else may do, you're bound to miss me mightily, and I figured that with me away, perhaps you could solve the problem alone I seem to fail in helping you with.
This is only a slight change of plans.
You are going in my stead.
I will harvest the ginseng and cure it, and then, if you are not at home, and the loneliness grows unbearable, I will take the chemistry course, until you decide when you will come, if ever.
” “'If ever?'
” “Yes,” said the Harvester.
“I am growing accustomed to facing big propositions----I will not dodge this.
The faces of the three of your people I have seen prove refinement.
Their clothing indicates wealth.
These long, lonely years mean that they will shower you with every outpouring of loving, hungry hearts.
They will keep you if they can, my dear.
I do not blame them.
The life I propose for you is one of work, mostly for others, and the reward, in great part, consists of the joy in the soul of the creator of things that help in the world.
I realize that you will find wealth, luxury, and lavish love.
I know that I may lose you forever, and if it is right and best for you, I hope I will.
I know exactly what I am risking, but I yet say, go.
” “I don't see how you can, and love me as you prove you do.
” “That is a little streak of the inevitableness of nature that the forest has ground into my soul.
I'd rather cut off my right hand than take yours with it, in the parting that will come in the morning; but you are going, and I am sending you.
So long as I am shaped like a human being, it is in me to dignify the possession of a vertical spine by acting as nearly like a man as I know how.
I insist that you are my wife, because it crucifies me to think otherwise.
I tell you to-night, Ruth, you are not and never have been.
You are free as air.
You married me without any love for me in your heart, and you pretended none.
It was all my doing.
