A Girl Of The Limberlost

G >> Gene Stratton Porter >> A Girl Of The Limberlost


"I'll ask mother, but I can't take your money, Uncle Wesley, indeed I
can't. I'll wait a year, and earn some, and enter next year."

"There's one thing you don't consider, Elnora," said the man earnestly.
"And that's what you are to Maggie. She's a little like your ma. She
hasn't given up to it, and she's struggling on brave, but when we buried
our second little girl the light went out of Maggie's eyes, and it's
not come back. The only time I ever see a hint of it is when she thinks
she's done something that makes you happy, Elnora. Now, you go easy
about refusing her anything she wants to do for you. There's times in
this world when it's our bounden duty to forget ourselves, and think
what will help other people. Young woman, you owe me and Maggie all the
comfort we can get out of you. There's the two of our own we can't ever
do anything for. Don't you get the idea into your head that a fool thing
you call pride is going to cut us out of all the pleasure we have in
life beside ourselves."

"Uncle Wesley, you are a dear," said Elnora. "Just a dear! If I can't
possibly get that money any way else on earth, I'll come and borrow it
of you, and then I'll pay it back if I must dig ferns from the swamp and
sell them from door to door in the city. I'll even plant them, so that
they will be sure to come up in the spring. I have been sort of panic
stricken all day and couldn't think. I can gather nuts and sell them.
Freckles sold moths and butterflies, and I've a lot collected. Of
course, I am going back to-morrow! I can find a way to get the books.
Don't you worry about me. I am all right!

"Now, what do you think of that?" inquired Wesley Sinton of the swamp in
general. "Here's our Elnora come back to stay. Head high and right as a
trivet! You've named three ways in three minutes that you could earn
ten dollars, which I figure would be enough, to start you. Let's go to
supper and stop worrying!"

Elnora unlocked the case, took out the pail, put the napkin in it,
pulled the ribbon from her hair, binding it down tightly again and
followed to the road. From afar she could see her mother in the doorway.
She blinked her eyes, and tried to smile as she answered Wesley Sinton,
and indeed she did feel better. She knew now what she had to expect,
where to go, and what to do. Get the books she must; when she had them,
she would show those city girls and boys how to prepare and recite
lessons, how to walk with a brave heart; and they could show her how to
wear pretty clothes and have good times.

As she neared the door her mother reached for the pail. "I forgot to
tell you to bring home your scraps for the chickens," she said.

Elnora entered. "There weren't any scraps, and I'm hungry again as I
ever was in my life."

"I thought likely you would be," said Mrs. Comstock, "and so I got
supper ready. We can eat first, and do the work afterward. What kept you
so? I expected you an hour ago."

Elnora looked into her mother's face and smiled. It was a queer sort
of a little smile, and would have reached the depths with any normal
mother.

"I see you've been bawling," said Mrs. Comstock. "I thought you'd get
your fill in a hurry. That's why I wouldn't go to any expense. If we
keep out of the poor-house we have to cut the corners close. It's likely
this Brushwood road tax will eat up all we've saved in years. Where the
land tax is to come from I don't know. It gets bigger every year. If
they are going to dredge the swamp ditch again they'll just have to take
the land to pay for it. I can't, that's all! We'll get up early in the
morning and gather and hull the beans for winter, and put in the rest of
the day hoeing the turnips."

Elnora again smiled that pitiful smile.

"Do you think I didn't know that I was funny and would be laughed at?"
she asked.

"Funny?" cried Mrs. Comstock hotly.

"Yes, funny! A regular caricature," answered Elnora. "No one else wore
calico, not even one other. No one else wore high heavy shoes, not even
one. No one else had such a funny little old hat; my hair was not right,
my ribbon invisible compared with the others, I did not know where
to go, or what to do, and I had no books. What a spectacle I made for
them!" Elnora laughed nervously at her own picture. "But there are
always two sides! The professor said in the algebra class that he never
had a better solution and explanation than mine of the proposition he
gave me, which scored one for me in spite of my clothes."

"Well, I wouldn't brag on myself!"

"That was poor taste," admitted Elnora. "But, you see, it is a case of
whistling to keep up my courage. I honestly could see that I would have
looked just as well as the rest of them if I had been dressed as they
were. We can't afford that, so I have to find something else to brace
me. It was rather bad, mother!"

"Well, I'm glad you got enough of it!"

"Oh, but I haven't," hurried in Elnora. "I just got a start. The hardest
is over. To-morrow they won't be surprised. They will know what
to expect. I am sorry to hear about the dredge. Is it really going
through?"

"Yes. I got my notification today. The tax will be something enormous.
I don't know as I can spare you, even if you are willing to be a
laughing-stock for the town."

With every bite Elnora's courage returned, for she was a healthy young
thing.

"You've heard about doing evil that good might come from it," she said.
"Well, mother mine, it's something like that with me. I'm willing to
bear the hard part to pay for what I'll learn. Already I have selected
the ward building in which I shall teach in about four years. I am going
to ask for a room with a south exposure so that the flowers and moths I
take in from the swamp to show the children will do well."

"You little idiot!" said Mrs. Comstock. "How are you going to pay your
expenses?"

"Now that is just what I was going to ask you!" said Elnora. "You see,
I have had two startling pieces of news to-day. I did not know I would
need any money. I thought the city furnished the books, and there is an
out-of-town tuition, also. I need ten dollars in the morning. Will you
please let me have it?"

"Ten dollars!" cried Mrs. Comstock. "Ten dollars! Why don't you say a
hundred and be done with it! I could get one as easy as the other. I
told you! I told you I couldn't raise a cent. Every year expenses grow
bigger and bigger. I told you not to ask for money!"

"I never meant to," replied Elnora. "I thought clothes were all I needed
and I could bear them. I never knew about buying books and tuition."

"Well, I did!" said Mrs. Comstock. "I knew what you would run into! But
you are so bull-dog stubborn, and so set in your way, I thought I would
just let you try the world a little and see how you liked it!"

Elnora pushed back her chair and looked at her mother.

"Do you mean to say," she demanded, "that you knew, when you let me
go into a city classroom and reveal the fact before all of them that I
expected to have my books handed out to me; do you mean to say that you
knew I had to pay for them?"

Mrs. Comstock evaded the direct question.

"Anybody but an idiot mooning over a book or wasting time prowling
the woods would have known you had to pay. Everybody has to pay for
everything. Life is made up of pay, pay, pay! It's always and forever
pay! If you don't pay one way you do another! Of course, I knew you had
to pay. Of course, I knew you would come home blubbering! But you don't
get a penny! I haven't one cent, and can't get one! Have your way if you
are determined, but I think you will find the road somewhat rocky."

"Swampy, you mean, mother," corrected Elnora. She arose white and
trembling. "Perhaps some day God will teach me how to understand you. He
knows I do not now. You can't possibly realize just what you let me
go through to-day, or how you let me go, but I'll tell you this: You
understand enough that if you had the money, and would offer it to me,
I wouldn't touch it now. And I'll tell you this much more. I'll get
it myself. I'll raise it, and do it some honest way. I am going back
to-morrow, the next day, and the next. You need not come out, I'll do
the night work, and hoe the turnips."

It was ten o'clock when the chickens, pigs, and cattle were fed, the
turnips hoed, and a heap of bean vines was stacked beside the back door.




CHAPTER II


WHEREIN WESLEY AND MARGARET GO SHOPPING, AND ELNORA'S WARDROBE IS
REPLENISHED


Wesley Sinton walked down the road half a mile and turned at the lane
leading to his home. His heart was hot and filled with indignation. He
had told Elnora he did not blame her mother, but he did. His wife met
him at the door.

"Did you see anything of Elnora?" she questioned.

"Most too much, Maggie," he answered. "What do you say to going to town?
There's a few things has to be got right away."

"Where did you see her, Wesley?"

"Along the old Limberlost trail, my girl, torn to pieces sobbing. Her
courage always has been fine, but the thing she met to-day was too much
for her. We ought to have known better than to let her go that way. It
wasn't only clothes; there were books, and entrance fees for out-of-town
people, that she didn't know about; while there must have been jeers,
whispers, and laughing. Maggie, I feel as if I'd been a traitor to
those girls of ours. I ought to have gone in and seen about this school
business. Don't cry, Maggie. Get me some supper, and I'll hitch up and
see what we can do now."

"What can we do, Wesley?

"I don't just know. But we've got to do something. Kate Comstock will be
a handful, while Elnora will be two, but between us we must see that the
girl is not too hard pressed about money, and that she is dressed so she
is not ridiculous. She's saved us the wages of a woman many a day, can't
you make her some decent dresses?"

"Well, I'm not just what you call expert, but I could beat Kate Comstock
all to pieces. I know that skirts should be pleated to the band instead
of gathered, and full enough to sit in, and short enough to walk in. I
could try. There are patterns for sale. Let's go right away, Wesley."

"Set me a bit of supper, while I hitch up."

Margaret built a fire, made coffee, and fried ham and eggs. She set out
pie and cake and had enough for a hungry man by the time the carriage
was at the door, but she had no appetite. She dressed while Wesley ate,
put away the food while he dressed, and then they drove toward the city
through the beautiful September evening, and as they went they planned
for Elnora. The trouble was, not whether they were generous enough to
buy what she needed, but whether she would accept their purchases, and
what her mother would say.

They went to a drygoods store and when a clerk asked what they wanted
to see neither of them knew, so they stepped aside and held a whispered
consultation.

"What had we better get, Wesley?"

"Dresses," said Wesley promptly,

"But how many dresses, and what kind?"

"Blest if I know!" exclaimed Wesley. "I thought you would manage that. I
know about some things I'm going to get."

At that instant several high school girls came into the store and
approached them.

"There!" exclaimed Wesley breathlessly. "There, Maggie! Like them!
That's what she needs! Buy like they have!"

Margaret stared. What did they wear? They were rapidly passing; they
seemed to have so much, and she could not decide so quickly. Before she
knew it she was among them.

"I beg your pardon, but won't you wait one minute?" she asked.

The girls stopped with wondering faces.

"It's your clothes," explained Mrs. Sinton. "You look just beautiful to
me. You look exactly as I should have wanted to see my girls. They both
died of diphtheria when they were little, but they had yellow hair, dark
eyes and pink cheeks, and everybody thought they were lovely. If they
had lived, they'd been near your age now, and I'd want them to look like
you."

There was sympathy on every girl face.

"Why thank you!" said one of them. "We are very sorry for you."

"Of course you are," said Margaret. "Everybody always has been. And
because I can't ever have the joy of a mother in thinking for my girls
and buying pretty things for them, there is nothing left for me, but to
do what I can for some one who has no mother to care for her. I know a
girl, who would be just as pretty as any of you, if she had the clothes,
but her mother does not think about her, so I mother her some myself."

"She must be a lucky girl," said another.

"Oh, she loves me," said Margaret, "and I love her. I want her to look
just like you do. Please tell me about your clothes. Are these the
dresses and hats you wear to school? What kind of goods are they, and
where do you buy them?"

The girls began to laugh and cluster around Margaret. Wesley strode down
the store with his head high through pride in her, but his heart
was sore over the memory of two little faces under Brushwood sod. He
inquired his way to the shoe department.

"Why, every one of us have on gingham or linen dresses," they said, "and
they are our school clothes."

For a few moments there was a babel of laughing voices explaining to the
delighted Margaret that school dresses should be bright and pretty, but
simple and plain, and until cold weather they should wash.

"I'll tell you," said Ellen Brownlee, "my father owns this store, I know
all the clerks. I'll take you to Miss Hartley. You tell her just how
much you want to spend, and what you want to buy, and she will know how
to get the most for your money. I've heard papa say she was the best
clerk in the store for people who didn't know precisely what they
wanted."

"That's the very thing," agreed Margaret. "But before you go, tell me
about your hair. Elnora's hair is bright and wavy, but yours is silky as
hackled flax. How do you do it?"

"Elnora?" asked four girls in concert.

"Yes, Elnora is the name of the girl I want these things for."

"Did she come to the high school to-day?" questioned one of them.

"Was she in your classes?" demanded Margaret without reply.

Four girls stood silent and thought fast. Had there been a strange girl
among them, and had she been overlooked and passed by with indifference,
because she was so very shabby? If she had appeared as much better than
they, as she had looked worse, would her reception have been the same?

"There was a strange girl from the country in the Freshman class
to-day," said Ellen Brownlee, "and her name was Elnora."

"That was the girl," said Margaret.

"Are her people so very poor?" questioned Ellen.

"No, not poor at all, come to think of it," answered Margaret. "It's a
peculiar case. Mrs. Comstock had a great trouble and she let it change
her whole life and make a different woman of her. She used to be lovely;
now she is forever saving and scared to death for fear they will go
to the poorhouse; but there is a big farm, covered with lots of good
timber. The taxes are high for women who can't manage to clear and work
the land. There ought to be enough to keep two of them in good shape all
their lives, if they only knew how to do it. But no one ever told Kate
Comstock anything, and never will, for she won't listen. All she does
is droop all day, and walk the edge of the swamp half the night, and
neglect Elnora. If you girls would make life just a little easier for
her it would be the finest thing you ever did."

All of them promised they would.

"Now tell me about your hair," persisted Margaret Sinton.

So they took her to a toilet counter, and she bought the proper hair
soap, also a nail file, and cold cream, for use after windy days. Then
they left her with the experienced clerk, and when at last Wesley found
her she was loaded with bundles and the light of other days was in her
beautiful eyes. Wesley also carried some packages.

"Did you get any stockings?" he whispered.

"No, I didn't," she said. "I was so interested in dresses and hair
ribbons and a--a hat----" she hesitated and glanced at Wesley. "Of
course, a hat!" prompted Wesley. "That I forgot all about those horrible
shoes. She's got to have decent shoes, Wesley."

"Sure!" said Wesley. "She's got decent shoes. But the man said some
brown stockings ought to go with them. Take a peep, will you!"

Wesley opened a box and displayed a pair of thick-soled, beautifully
shaped brown walking shoes of low cut. Margaret cried out with pleasure.

"But do you suppose they are the right size, Wesley? What did you get?"

"I just said for a girl of sixteen with a slender foot."

"Well, that's about as near as I could come. If they don't fit when
she tries them, we will drive straight in and change them. Come on now,
let's get home."

All the way they discussed how they should give Elnora their purchases
and what Mrs. Comstock would say.

"I am afraid she will be awful mad," said Margaret.

"She'll just rip!" replied Wesley graphically. "But if she wants
to leave the raising of her girl to the neighbours, she needn't get
fractious if they take some pride in doing a good job. From now on I
calculate Elnora shall go to school; and she shall have all the clothes
and books she needs, if I go around on the back of Kate Comstock's land
and cut a tree, or drive off a calf to pay for them. Why I know one tree
she owns that would put Elnora in heaven for a year. Just think of it,
Margaret! It's not fair. One-third of what is there belongs to Elnora
by law, and if Kate Comstock raises a row I'll tell her so, and see that
the girl gets it. You go to see Kate in the morning, and I'll go with
you. Tell her you want Elnora's pattern, that you are going to make her
a dress, for helping us. And sort of hint at a few more things. If Kate
balks, I'll take a hand and settle her. I'll go to law for Elnora's
share of that land and sell enough to educate her."

"Why, Wesley Sinton, you're perfectly wild."

"I'm not! Did you ever stop to think that such cases are so frequent
there have been laws made to provide for them? I can bring it up in
court and force Kate to educate Elnora, and board and clothe her till
she's of age, and then she can take her share."

"Wesley, Kate would go crazy!"

"She's crazy now. The idea of any mother living with as sweet a girl as
Elnora and letting her suffer till I find her crying like a funeral.
It makes me fighting mad. All uncalled for. Not a grain of sense in it.
I've offered and offered to oversee clearing her land and working her
fields. Let her sell a good tree, or a few acres. Something is going to
be done, right now. Elnora's been fairly happy up to this, but to spoil
the school life she's planned, is to ruin all her life. I won't have it!
If Elnora won't take these things, so help me, I'll tell her what she is
worth, and loan her the money and she can pay me back when she comes of
age. I am going to have it out with Kate Comstock in the morning. Here
we are! You open up what you got while I put away the horses, and then
I'll show you."

When Wesley came from the barn Margaret had four pieces of crisp
gingham, a pale blue, a pink, a gray with green stripes and a rich brown
and blue plaid. On each of them lay a yard and a half of wide ribbon to
match. There were handkerchiefs and a brown leather belt. In her hands
she held a wide-brimmed tan straw hat, having a high crown banded with
velvet strips each of which fastened with a tiny gold buckle.

"It looks kind of bare now," she explained. "It had three quills on it
here."

"Did you have them taken off?" asked Wesley.

"Yes, I did. The price was two and a half for the hat, and those things
were a dollar and a half apiece. I couldn't pay that."

"It does seem considerable," admitted Wesley, "but will it look right
without them?"

"No, it won't!" said Margaret. "It's going to have quills on it. Do you
remember those beautiful peacock wing feathers that Phoebe Simms gave
me? Three of them go on just where those came off, and nobody will ever
know the difference. They match the hat to a moral, and they are just
a little longer and richer than the ones that I had taken off. I was
wondering whether I better sew them on to-night while I remember how
they set, or wait till morning."

"Don't risk it!" exclaimed Wesley anxiously. "Don't you risk it! Sew
them on right now!"

"Open your bundles, while I get the thread," said Margaret.

Wesley unwrapped the shoes. Margaret took them up and pinched the
leather and stroked them.

"My, but they are fine!" she cried.

Wesley picked up one and slowly turned it in his big hands. He glanced
at his foot and back to the shoe.

"It's a little bit of a thing, Margaret," he said softly. "Like as not
I'll have to take it back. It seems as if it couldn't fit."

"It seems as if it didn't dare do anything else," said Margaret. "That's
a happy little shoe to get the chance to carry as fine a girl as Elnora
to high school. Now what's in the other box?"

Wesley looked at Margaret doubtfully.

"Why," he said, "you know there's going to be rainy days, and those
things she has now ain't fit for anything but to drive up the cows----"

"Wesley, did you get high shoes, too?"

"Well, she ought to have them! The man said he would make them cheaper
if I took both pairs at once."

Margaret laughed aloud. "Those will do her past Christmas," she exulted.
"What else did you buy?"

"Well sir," said Wesley, "I saw something to-day. You told me about Kate
getting that tin pail for Elnora to carry to high school and you said
you told her it was a shame. I guess Elnora was ashamed all right, for
to-night she stopped at the old case Duncan gave her, and took out that
pail, where it had been all day, and put a napkin inside it. Coming home
she confessed she was half starved because she hid her dinner under a
culvert, and a tramp took it. She hadn't had a bite to eat the whole
day. But she never complained at all, she was pleased that she hadn't
lost the napkin. So I just inquired around till I found this, and I
think it's about the ticket."

Wesley opened the package and laid a brown leather lunch box on the
table. "Might be a couple of books, or drawing tools or most anything
that's neat and genteel. You see, it opens this way."

It did open, and inside was a space for sandwiches, a little porcelain
box for cold meat or fried chicken, another for salad, a glass with a
lid which screwed on, held by a ring in a corner, for custard or jelly,
a flask for tea or milk, a beautiful little knife, fork, and spoon
fastened in holders, and a place for a napkin.

Margaret was almost crying over it.

"How I'd love to fill it!" she exclaimed.

"Do it the first time, just to show Kate Comstock what love is!" said
Wesley. "Get up early in the morning and make one of those dresses
to-morrow. Can't you make a plain gingham dress in a day? I'll pick a
chicken, and you fry it and fix a little custard for the cup, and do it
up brown. Go on, Maggie, you do it!"

"I never can," said Margaret. "I am slow as the itch about sewing, and
these are not going to be plain dresses when it comes to making them.
There are going to be edgings of plain green, pink, and brown to the
bias strips, and tucks and pleats around the hips, fancy belts and
collars, and all of it takes time."

"Then Kate Comstock's got to help," said Wesley. "Can the two of you
make one, and get that lunch to-morrow?"

"Easy, but she'll never do it!"

"You see if she doesn't!" said Wesley. "You get up and cut it out, and
soon as Elnora is gone I'll go after Kate myself. She'll take what I'll
say better alone. But she'll come, and she'll help make the dress. These
other things are our Christmas gifts to Elnora. She'll no doubt need
them more now than she will then, and we can give them just as well.
That's yours, and this is mine, or whichever way you choose."

Wesley untied a good brown umbrella and shook out the folds of a long,
brown raincoat. Margaret dropped the hat, arose and took the coat. She
tried it on, felt it, cooed over it and matched it with the umbrella.

"Did it look anything like rain to-night?" she inquired so anxiously
that Wesley laughed.

"And this last bundle?" she said, dropping back in her chair, the coat
still over her shoulders.

"I couldn't buy this much stuff for any other woman and nothing for my
own," said Wesley. "It's Christmas for you, too, Margaret!" He shook out
fold after fold of soft gray satiny goods that would look lovely against
Margaret's pink cheeks and whitening hair.

"Oh, you old darling!" she exclaimed, and fled sobbing into his arms.

But she soon dried her eyes, raked together the coals in the cooking
stove and boiled one of the dress patterns in salt water for half an
hour. Wesley held the lamp while she hung the goods on the line to dry.
Then she set the irons on the stove so they would be hot the first thing
in the morning.




CHAPTER III


WHEREIN ELNORA VISITS THE BIRD WOMAN, AND OPENS A BANK ACCOUNT


Four o'clock the following morning Elnora was shelling beans. At six she
fed the chickens and pigs, swept two of the rooms of the cabin, built a
fire, and put on the kettle for breakfast. Then she climbed the narrow
stairs to the attic she had occupied since a very small child, and
dressed in the hated shoes and brown calico, plastered down her crisp
curls, ate what breakfast she could, and pinning on her hat started for
town.