A Girl Of The Limberlost

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


"Well, you won't have him!" exclaimed Margaret Sinton. "That boy is
Wesley's! He found him, and brought him here. You can't come in and take
him like that! Let go of him!"

"Not much, I won't!" cried Mrs. Comstock. "Leave the poor sick little
soul here for you to beat, because he didn't know just how to handle
things! Of course, he'll make mistakes. He must have a lot of teaching,
but not the kind he'll get from you! Clear out of my way!"

"You let go of our boy," ordered Margaret.

"Why? Do you want to whip him, before he can go to sleep?" jeered Mrs.
Comstock.

"No, I don't!" said Margaret. "He's Wesley's, and nobody shall touch
him. Wesley!"

Wesley Sinton appeared behind Margaret in the doorway, and she turned to
him. "Make Kate Comstock let go of our boy!" she demanded.

"Billy, she wants you now," said Wesley Sinton. "She won't whip you, and
she won't let any one else. You can have stacks of good things to eat,
ride in the carriage, and have a great time. Won't you stay with us?"

Billy drew away from Mrs. Comstock and Elnora.

He faced Margaret, his eyes shrewd with unchildish wisdom. Necessity had
taught him to strike the hot iron, to drive the hard bargain.

"Can I have Snap to live here always?" he demanded.

"Yes, you can have all the dogs you want," said Margaret Sinton.

"Can I sleep close enough so's I can touch you?"

"Yes, you can move your lounge up so that you can hold my hand," said
Margaret.

"Do you love me now?" questioned Billy.

"I'll try to love you, if you are a good boy," said Margaret.

"Then I guess I'll stay," said Billy, walking over to her.

Out in the night Elnora and her mother went down the road in the
moonlight; every few rods Mrs. Comstock laughed aloud.

"Mother, I don't understand you," sobbed Elnora.

"Well, maybe when you have gone to high school longer you will," said
Mrs. Comstock. "Anyway, you saw me bring Mag Sinton to her senses,
didn't you?"

"Yes, I did," answered Elnora, "but I thought you were in earnest. So
did Billy, and Uncle Wesley, and Aunt Margaret."

"Well, wasn't I?" inquired Mrs. Comstock.

"But you just said you brought Aunt Margaret to!"

"Well, didn't I?"

"I don't understand you."

"That's the reason I am recommending more schooling!"

Elnora took her candle and went to bed. Mrs. Comstock was feeling too
good to sleep. Twice of late she really had enjoyed herself for the
first in sixteen years, and greediness for more of the same feeling
crept into her blood like intoxication. As she sat brooding alone she
knew the truth. She would have loved to have taken Billy. She would not
have minded his mischief, his chatter, or his dog. He would have meant
a distraction from herself that she greatly needed; she was even sincere
about the dog. She had intended to tell Wesley to buy her one at the
very first opportunity. Her last thought was of Billy. She chuckled
softly, for she was not saintly, and now she knew how she could even a
long score with Margaret and Wesley in a manner that would fill her soul
with grim satisfaction.




CHAPTER VIII


WHEREIN THE LIMBERLOST TEMPTS ELNORA, AND BILLY BURIES HIS FATHER


Immediately after dinner on Sunday Wesley Sinton stopped at the Comstock
gate to ask if Elnora wanted to go to town with them. Billy sat beside
him and he did not appear as if he were on his way to a funeral. Elnora
said she had to study and could not go, but she suggested that her
mother take her place. Mrs. Comstock put on her hat and went at once,
which surprised Elnora. She did not know that her mother was anxious
for an opportunity to speak with Sinton alone. Elnora knew why she
was repeatedly cautioned not to leave their land, if she went specimen
hunting.

She studied two hours and was several lessons ahead of her classes.
There was no use to go further. She would take a walk and see if she
could gather any caterpillars or find any freshly spun cocoons. She
searched the bushes and low trees behind the garden and all around the
edge of the woods on their land, and having little success, at last
came to the road. Almost the first thorn bush she examined yielded a
Polyphemus cocoon. Elnora lifted her head with the instinct of a hunter
on the chase, and began work. She reached the swamp before she knew
it, carrying five fine cocoons of different species as her reward. She
pushed back her hair and gazed around longingly. A few rods inside she
thought she saw cocoons on a bush, to which she went, and found several.
Sense of caution was rapidly vanishing; she was in a fair way to
forget everything and plunge into the swamp when she thought she heard
footsteps coming down the trail. She went back, and came out almost
facing Pete Corson.

That ended her difficulty. She had known him since childhood. When she
sat on the front bench of the Brushwood schoolhouse, Pete had been one
of the big boys at the back of the room. He had been rough and wild,
but she never had been afraid of him, and often he had given her pretty
things from the swamp.

"What luck!" she cried. "I promised mother I would not go inside the
swamp alone, and will you look at the cocoons I've found! There are more
just screaming for me to come get them, because the leaves will fall
with the first frost, and then the jays and crows will begin to tear
them open. I haven't much time, since I'm going to school. You will go
with me, Pete! Please say yes! Just a little way!"

"What are those things?" asked the man, his keen black eyes staring at
her.

"They are the cases these big caterpillars spin for winter, and in the
spring they come out great night moths, and I can sell them. Oh, Pete, I
can sell them for enough to take me through high school and dress me
so like the others that I don't look different, and if I have very good
luck I can save some for college. Pete, please go with me?"

"Why don't you go like you always have?"

"Well, the truth is, I had a little scare," said Elnora. "I never did
mean to go alone; sometimes I sort of wandered inside farther than I
intended, chasing things. You know Duncan gave me Freckles's books, and
I have been gathering moths like he did. Lately I found I could sell
them. If I can make a complete collection, I can get three hundred
dollars for it. Three such collections would take me almost through
college, and I've four years in the high school yet. That's a long time.
I might collect them."

"Can every kind there is be found here?"

"No, not all of them, but when I get more than I need of one kind, I
can trade them with collectors farther north and west, so I can complete
sets. It's the only way I see to earn the money. Look what I have
already. Big gray Cecropias come from this kind; brown Polyphemus from
that, and green Lunas from these. You aren't working on Sunday. Go with
me only an hour, Pete!"

The man looked at her narrowly. She was young, wholesome, and beautiful.
She was innocent, intensely in earnest, and she needed the money, he
knew that.

"You didn't tell me what scared you," he said.

"Oh, I thought I did! Why you know I had Freckles's box packed full of
moths and specimens, and one evening I sold some to the Bird Woman. Next
morning I found a note telling me it wasn't safe to go inside the swamp.
That sort of scared me. I think I'll go alone, rather than miss the
chance, but I'd be so happy if you would take care of me. Then I could
go anywhere I chose, because if I mired you could pull me out. You will
take care of me, Pete?"

"Yes, I'll take care of you," promised Pete Corson.

"Goody!" said Elnora. "Let's start quick! And Pete, you look at these
closely, and when you are hunting or going along the road, if one
dangles under your nose, you cut off the little twig and save it for me,
will you?"

"Yes, I'll save you all I see," promised Pete. He pushed back his
hat and followed Elnora. She plunged fearlessly among bushes, over
underbrush, and across dead logs. One minute she was crying wildly, that
here was a big one, the next she was reaching for a limb above her head
or on her knees overturning dead leaves under a hickory or oak tree, or
working aside black muck with her bare hands as she searched for buried
pupae cases. For the first hour Pete bent back bushes and followed,
carrying what Elnora discovered. Then he found one.

"Is this the kind of thing you are looking for?" he asked bashfully, as
he presented a wild cherry twig.

"Oh Pete, that's a Promethea! I didn't even hope to find one."

"What's the bird like?" asked Pete.

"Almost black wings," said Elnora, "with clay-coloured edges, and the
most wonderful wine-coloured flush over the under side if it's a male,
and stronger wine above and below if it's a female. Oh, aren't I happy!"

"How would it do to make what you have into a bunch that we could leave
here, and come back for them?"

"That would be all right."

Relieved of his load Pete began work. First, he narrowly examined the
cocoons Elnora had found. He questioned her as to what other kinds would
be like. He began to use the eyes of a trained woodman and hunter in
her behalf. He saw several so easily, and moved through the forest so
softly, that Elnora forgot the moths in watching him. Presently she was
carrying the specimens, and he was making the trips of investigation to
see which was a cocoon and which a curled leaf, or he was on his knees
digging around stumps. As he worked he kept asking questions. What
kind of logs were best to look beside, what trees were pupae cases
most likely to be under; on what bushes did caterpillars spin most
frequently? Time passed, as it always does when one's occupation is
absorbing.

When the Sintons took Mrs. Comstock home, they stopped to see Elnora.
She was not there. Mrs. Comstock called at the edge of her woods and
received no reply. Then Wesley turned and drove back to the Limberlost.
He left Margaret and Mrs. Comstock holding the team and entertaining
Billy, while he entered the swamp.

Elnora and Pete had made a wide trail behind them. Before Sinton had
thought of calling, he heard voices and approached with some caution.
Soon he saw Elnora, her flushed face beaming as she bent with an armload
of twigs and branches and talked to a kneeling man.

"Now go cautiously!" she was saying. "I am just sure we will find an
Imperialis here. It's their very kind of a place. There! What did I tell
you! Isn't that splendid? Oh, I am so glad you came with me!"

Wesley stood staring in speechless astonishment, for the man had arisen,
brushed the dirt from his hands, and held out to Elnora a small shining
dark pupa case. As his face came into view Sinton almost cried out, for
he was the one man of all others Wesley knew with whom he most feared
for Elnora's safety. She had him on his knees digging pupae cases for
her from the swamp.

"Elnora!" called Sinton. "Elnora!"

"Oh, Uncle Wesley!" cried the girl. "See what luck we've had! I know we
have a dozen and a half cocoons and we have three pupae cases. It's much
harder to get the cases because you have to dig for them, and you can't
see where to look. But Pete is fine at it! He's found three, and he
says he will keep watch beside the roads, and through the woods while he
hunts. Isn't that splendid of him? Uncle Wesley, there is a college over
there on the western edge of the swamp. Look closely, and you can see
the great dome up among the clouds."

"I should say you have had luck," said Wesley, striving to make his
voice natural. "But I thought you were not coming to the swamp?"

"Well, I wasn't," said Elnora, "but I couldn't find many anywhere else,
honest, I couldn't, and just as soon as I came to the edge I began to
see them here. I kept my promise. I didn't come in alone. Pete came
with me. He's so strong, he isn't afraid of anything, and he's perfectly
splendid to locate cocoons! He's found half of these. Come on, Pete,
it's getting dark now, and we must go."

They started toward the trail, Pete carrying the cocoons. He left them
at the case, while Elnora and Wesley went on to the carriage together.

"Elnora Comstock, what does this mean?" demanded her mother.

"It's all right, one of the neighbours was with her, and she got several
dollars' worth of stuff," interposed Wesley.

"You oughter seen my pa," shouted Billy. "He was ist all whited out, and
he laid as still as anything. They put him away deep in the ground."

"Billy!" breathed Margaret in a prolonged groan.

"Jimmy and Belle are going to be together in a nice place. They are
coming to see me, and Snap is right down here by the wheel. Here, Snap!
My, but he'll be tickled to get something to eat! He's 'most twisted
as me. They get new clothes, and all they want to eat, too, but they'll
miss me. They couldn't have got along without me. I took care of them.
I had a lot of things give to me 'cause I was the littlest, and I always
divided with them. But they won't need me now."

When she left the carriage Mrs. Comstock gravely shook hands with Billy.
"Remember," she said to him, "I love boys, and I love dogs. Whenever you
don't have a good time up there, take your dog and come right down and
be my little boy. We will just have loads of fun. You should hear the
whistles I can make. If you aren't treated right you come straight to
me."

Billy wagged his head sagely. "You ist bet I will!" he said.

"Mother, how could you?" asked Elnora as they walked up the path.

"How could I, missy? You better ask how couldn't I? I just couldn't! Not
for enough to pay, my road tax! Not for enough to pay the road tax, and
the dredge tax, too!"

"Aunt Margaret always has been lovely to me, and I don't think it's fair
to worry her."

"I choose to be lovely to Billy, and let her sweat out her own worries
just as she has me, these sixteen years. There is nothing in all this
world so good for people as taking a dose of their own medicine. The
difference is that I am honest. I just say in plain English, 'if they
don't treat you right, come to me.' They have only said it in actions
and inferences. I want to teach Mag Sinton how her own doses taste, but
she begins to sputter before I fairly get the spoon to her lips. Just
you wait!"

"When I think what I owe her----" began Elnora.

"Well, thank goodness, I don't owe her anything, and so I'm perfectly
free to do what I choose. Come on, and help me get supper. I'm hungry as
Billy!"

Margaret Sinton rocked slowly back and forth in her chair. On her breast
lay Billy's red head, one hand clutched her dress front with spasmodic
grip, even after he was unconscious.

"You mustn't begin that, Margaret," said Sinton. "He's too heavy. And
it's bad for him. He's better off to lie down and go to sleep alone."

"He's very light, Wesley. He jumps and quivers so. He has to be stronger
than he is now, before he will sleep soundly."




CHAPTER IX


WHEREIN ELNORA DISCOVERS A VIOLIN, AND BILLY DISCIPLINES MARGARET


Elnora missed the little figure at the bridge the following morning. She
slowly walked up the street and turned in at the wide entrance to the
school grounds. She scarcely could comprehend that only a week ago she
had gone there friendless, alone, and so sick at heart that she was
physically ill. To-day she had decent clothing, books, friends, and her
mind was at ease to work on her studies.

As she approached home that night the girl paused in amazement. Her
mother had company, and she was laughing. Elnora entered the kitchen
softly and peeped into the sitting-room. Mrs. Comstock sat in her chair
holding a book and every few seconds a soft chuckle broke into a real
laugh. Mark Twain was doing his work; while Mrs. Comstock was not
lacking in a sense of humour. Elnora entered the room before her mother
saw her. Mrs. Comstock looked up with flushed face.

"Where did you get this?" she demanded.

"I bought it," said Elnora.

"Bought it! With all the taxes due!"

"I paid for it out of my Indian money, mother," said Elnora. "I couldn't
bear to spend so much on myself and nothing at all on you. I was afraid
to buy the dress I should have liked to, and I thought the book would be
company, while I was gone. I haven't read it, but I do hope it's good."

"Good! It's the biggest piece of foolishness I have read in all my life.
I've laughed all day, ever since I found it. I had a notion to go out
and read some of it to the cows and see if they wouldn't laugh."

"If it made you laugh, it's a wise book," said Elnora.

"Wise!" cried Mrs. Comstock. "You can stake your life it's a wise book.
It takes the smartest man there is to do this kind of fooling," and she
began laughing again.

Elnora, highly satisfied with her purchase, went to her room and put on
her working clothes. Thereafter she made a point of bringing a book that
she thought would interest her mother, from the library every week, and
leaving it on the sitting-room table. Each night she carried home at
least two school books and studied until she had mastered the points
of her lessons. She did her share of the work faithfully, and every
available minute she was in the fields searching for cocoons, for the
moths promised to become her largest source of income.

She gathered baskets of nests, flowers, mosses, insects, and all sorts
of natural history specimens and sold them to the grade teachers. At
first she tried to tell these instructors what to teach their pupils
about the specimens; but recognizing how much more she knew than they,
one after another begged her to study at home, and use her spare hours
in school to exhibit and explain nature subjects to their pupils. Elnora
loved the work, and she needed the money, for every few days some matter
of expense arose that she had not expected.

From the first week she had been received and invited with the crowd
of girls in her class, and it was their custom in passing through the
business part of the city to stop at the confectioners' and take turns
in treating to expensive candies, ice cream sodas, hot chocolate, or
whatever they fancied. When first Elnora was asked she accepted without
understanding. The second time she went because she seldom had tasted
these things, and they were so delicious she could not resist. After
that she went because she knew all about it, and had decided to go.

She had spent half an hour on the log beside the trail in deep thought
and had arrived at her conclusions. She worked harder than usual for the
next week, but she seemed to thrive on work. It was October and the
red leaves were falling when her first time came to treat. As the crowd
flocked down the broad walk that night Elnora called, "Girls, it's my
treat to-night! Come on!"

She led the way through the city to the grocery they patronized when
they had a small spread, and entering came out with a basket, which she
carried to the bridge on her home road. There she arranged the girls
in two rows on the cement abutments and opening her basket she gravely
offered each girl an exquisite little basket of bark, lined with red
leaves, in one end of which nestled a juicy big red apple and in the
other a spicy doughnut not an hour from Margaret Sinton's frying basket.

Another time she offered big balls of popped corn stuck together with
maple sugar, and liberally sprinkled with beechnut kernels. Again it
was hickory-nut kernels glazed with sugar, another time maple candy,
and once a basket of warm pumpkin pies. She never made any apology,
or offered any excuse. She simply gave what she could afford, and the
change was as welcome to those city girls accustomed to sodas and French
candy, as were these same things to Elnora surfeited on popcorn and pie.
In her room was a little slip containing a record of the number of weeks
in the school year, the times it would be her turn to treat and the
dates on which such occasions would fall, with a number of suggestions
beside each. Once the girls almost fought over a basket lined with
yellow leaves, and filled with fat, very ripe red haws. In late October
there was a riot over one which was lined with red leaves and contained
big fragrant pawpaws frost-bitten to a perfect degree. Then hazel
nuts were ripe, and once they served. One day Elnora at her wits' end,
explained to her mother that the girls had given her things and she
wanted to treat them. Mrs. Comstock, with characteristic stubbornness,
had said she would leave a basket at the grocery for her, but firmly
declined to say what would be in it. All day Elnora struggled to keep
her mind on her books. For hours she wavered in tense uncertainty. What
would her mother do? Should she take the girls to the confectioner's
that night or risk the basket? Mrs. Comstock could make delicious things
to eat, but would she?

As they left the building Elnora made a final rapid mental calculation.
She could not see her way clear to a decent treat for ten people for
less than two dollars and if the basket proved to be nice, then the
money would be wasted. She decided to risk it. As they went to the
bridge the girls were betting on what the treat would be, and crowding
near Elnora like spoiled small children. Elnora set down the basket.

"Girls," she said, "I don't know what this is myself, so all of us are
going to be surprised. Here goes!"

She lifted the cover and perfumes from the land of spices rolled up. In
one end of the basket lay ten enormous sugar cakes the tops of which had
been liberally dotted with circles cut from stick candy. The candy had
melted in baking and made small transparent wells of waxy sweetness
and in the centre of each cake was a fat turtle made from a raisin with
cloves for head and feet. The remainder of the basket was filled with
big spiced pears that could be held by their stems while they were
eaten. The girls shrieked and attacked the cookies, and of all the
treats Elnora offered perhaps none was quite so long remembered as that.

When Elnora took her basket, placed her books in it, and started home,
all the girls went with her as far as the fence where she crossed the
field to the swamp. At parting they kissed her good-bye. Elnora was a
happy girl as she hurried home to thank her mother. She was happy over
her books that night, and happy all the way to school the following
morning.

When the music swelled from the orchestra her heart almost broke with
throbbing joy. For music always had affected her strangely, and since
she had been comfortable enough in her surroundings to notice things,
she had listened to every note to find what it was that literally hurt
her heart, and at last she knew. It was the talking of the violins.
They were human voices, and they spoke a language Elnora understood. It
seemed to her that she must climb up on the stage, take the instruments
from the fingers of the players and make them speak what was in her
heart.

That night she said to her mother, "I am perfectly crazy for a violin. I
am sure I could play one, sure as I live. Did any one----" Elnora never
completed that sentence.

"Hush!" thundered Mrs. Comstock. "Be quiet! Never mention those things
before me again--never as long as you live! I loathe them! They are a
snare of the very devil himself! They were made to lure men and women
from their homes and their honour. If ever I see you with one in your
fingers I will smash it in pieces."

Naturally Elnora hushed, but she thought of nothing else after she had
finished her lessons. At last there came a day when for some reason the
leader of the orchestra left his violin on the grand piano. That morning
Elnora made her first mistake in algebra. At noon, as soon as the
building was empty, she slipped into the auditorium, found the side door
which led to the stage, and going through the musicians' entrance she
took the violin. She carried it back into the little side room where the
orchestra assembled, closed all the doors, opened the case and lifted
out the instrument.

She laid it on her breast, dropped her chin on it and drew the bow
softly across the strings. One after another she tested the open notes.
Gradually her stroke ceased to tremble and she drew the bow firmly. Then
her fingers began to fall and softly, slowly she searched up and down
those strings for sounds she knew. Standing in the middle of the floor,
she tried over and over. It seemed scarcely a minute before the hall was
filled with the sound of hurrying feet, and she was forced to put away
the violin and go to her classes. The next day she prayed that the
violin would be left again, but her petition was not answered. That
night when she returned from the school she made an excuse to go down
to see Billy. He was engaged in hulling walnuts by driving them through
holes in a board. His hands were protected by a pair of Margaret's old
gloves, but he had speckled his face generously. He appeared well, and
greeted Elnora hilariously.

"Me an' the squirrels are laying up our winter stores," he shouted. "Cos
the cold is coming, an' the snow an' if we have any nuts we have to fix
'em now. But I'm ahead, cos Uncle Wesley made me this board, and I
can hull a big pile while the old squirrel does only ist one with his
teeth."