The Abandoned Farmer

t one who lacks the moral courage to do right when I know it will be better for me in the end; nor would I be unwise enough to attempt to conceal the fact that I have faults when I know that it

r side of her path, for her artistic eye delights to s

g

rt the useless, humiliating process of having my mistakes pointed out in detail; only thus could I evoke the sweet human sympathy I craved, and divert my wife's indignation toward that adroit old swindler, John Waydean. She was visibly affected by my self-accusation, and I began to breathe mo

, "I'm an idiot, but ther

e moaned

pair, "but[Pg 127] if it were yo

she gasped, with

e for having told the butcher that I knew all about cattle. I saw that

rosity. "You must not blame yourself—you didn't

nheeding. "To think that—

cried. "It was I

ion uncovered her face. Not a word did

otly; "I never said I kne

strode from the room, trying to make my back view appear like that of a man who might possibly escape being mangled by a train or dying of heart failure until his wife had an opportunity to apologize for her heartless conduct. This device had never failed; it didn't this time. I was reaching for my

fluence that I lost all sensitiveness on the subject; indeed, after pledging the butcher to secrecy, I found myself telling Andy Taylor with the gusto of an onlooker. And later, when we had, through the good offices of the butcher, found a suitable cow that wasn't

more I like her to be aware of it. Solicitude is cheering to me, so when, at first, she used to stand beside me and express a fear that I might hurt my back or burst a blood-vessel, I worked enthusiastically; but late

use of them for that purpose. Marion smilingly admitted that it was extraordinary; she suggested that perhaps I was influenced by the same instinct that led me to leave the Venetian shutters on the window frames all winter, instead of taking them off in the fall and[Pg 131] putting them on again in the spring. However, I was proud enough of the success of my invention to be content to see the obtrusive request "PLEASE CLOSE THIS GATE" swing uselessly in the wintry winds, while the gate itself stood open, half buried in the snowdrift that formed around it after every storm. If the gate were closed, the request retreated into obscurity behind a post, but when it was opened the board swung across t

ainst a blustering March wind, spied something that caused him to stop and think, to lay his stick and bund

edded in several feet of snow and ice, was now closed, a way being neatly cleared for its movement. I opened it and the warning notice shot out over my head, in perfect working order. I w

er did"

m,"[Pg 133] she said mysteriousl

in my absence, and somehow I leaped to the conclusion that she had been impos

dearest, funniest little old man, with pink cheeks like a

e him hi

and said he'd like to borrow a shovel for a few minutes. About half an hour later I remembered he hadn't brought it back, and when I looked out of the front window there was the top of his head bobbing up an

'No, ma'am,' he said, 'but when I seen that there sign hung out, I thought to myself that some widow with small children lived here, and it wouldn't be much of a job

mil

latter me, and I made him come up to the house to get some dinner when he got the gate closed. You should have seen his face when the semaphore went behind the gate-

the poor old chap some dinner," I

e one and ate it, and ever since when he tries to feel sorry the remembrance of the delightful sensation in his insides overpowers his conscience and makes him feel glad. Of course I gave him one for dinner, and I tol

atterer!" I

praised your semaphore," cr

g

but it was some little time before she could understand that

hurry, so he'd just cut up some wood and do the stabl

t mean either that she had some new project of her own in the background to submit to me, or that she was

aphore?" I in

a tantalizing laugh. "He wants

vice had led me to think of having it patented under the name of "The Eureka Non-Automatic Gate-Closing Attachment," but Marion had nipped my project in the bud. The butcher, too, when I asked his opinion, had chilled my enthusiasm by declaring that if my

enable me to buy Waydean; ten more would pay for a train load of implements, as in my day dream of long ago; another ten would stock

g

ent of my triumph? No, I didn't. For one thing, I was sure Marion was keeping something from me; otherwi

nd him off. I wouldn't be bothered selling count

"Wait," she said hurr

said, with determination, "and

sisted. "Sit down, and I'll tell you

got to do with us? When I proposed hiring a man you said we cou

a day. He won't take any wages, but he'd like to have the reading of our books and newspap

s, I concluded, accruing to the possession of even the fractional part of a hired man. For instance, I would at once be relieved of the stable work and the milking of Mary Jane. Then spring was coming on, and I would be able to

ell him?" I asked, tr

tter for[Pg 140] you to decide and

thful, yet it was a convention of hers that my word was law, and that I w

r frigid, inquiring glance. "I'll—I'll think it

is, I'm quite, quite willing to

n, but I wanted to see him play[Pg 141] the part, although he looked more like a well-to-do retired farmer taking a holiday than a man who needed to travel about looking for work. He did not present credentials, but I ignored the question of references, which seemed quite unnecessary in view of his obvious respectability. He knew how to do farm work, he assured me; he was handy with tools, understood gardening,

by experience that nothing was so effective in baffling any attempt to play off as a steady concentrated stare. His

you embarrassing questions, but I must know the truth about this semaphore business

face. "Why," he replied, as if he wondered at my asking such

this time I was almost startled by the perfection w

e air of being willing to wait until he had time to compute the number of hairs it contained, and I tried to intimate silently[Pg 143] that my waiting could have

king the confession, "I didn't like to say so at first,

myself, but I recognized a hollowness in his laugh. I waited with silent expectancy,

ir of one who reluctantly parts with his last coin, he ad

t how, that he was mistaken. I tried to recall what Marion would[Pg 144] have said at this juncture, and I said it; indeed, I said it so effec

claimed, "since my miss—" He checked the utterance with an abrupt cough, and continued in a low soliloquizing tone, "Now I come

I asked,

xplained, wiping his mouth

y departed when the door into the dining-room opened and Marion appeared. I saw from her face that

g

etch!" she

knew it was one of the times when she could imagine m

ughing at?" she

g—" I began, then I

what?" she

r is either a marri

nd I had the answer ready, but it w

face became suddenly illumined with appreciative mirth. "O

," I f

ype="