Then I'll Come Back to You

confess that, while matrimony no doubt offered a far wider field for both general excitement and variety, as far as he hi

the cogs of the domestic machinery of the white place on the hill that their chu

ence as dependable as the rising and setting of the sun itself. Every Sunday morning a rare vision of stately dignity for all her tininess, assisted by Caleb, she descended from the Hunter equipage to enter the portals of the

the crisis was over, soft-voiced, soft-fingered and serenely sure of herself. Sarah had never married, and even though she had in the long interval which, year by year, had brought to Caleb a more placid rotundity grown slen

one end of Caleb's heavy gold watch chain still carried a bit of a gold coin, worn smooth and thin from years of handling; she knew that the single word across its back, even though it had long ago been effaced so far as other eyes were concerned, was still there for him to see. And Caleb, rummaging one day for some lost article or other, in a pigeonhole in Sarah's desk

he moment he had forgotten that the sun was low in the west; he had overlooked the fact that it was customary for the Hunter establishment to sup early during the warm summer months. But when he turned to find Sarah watching, stiff a

ck. But the boy who must have received her glance full in his face had not faltered a step in his advance. He went forward until he stood at the foot of the low steps which mounted to the veranda; and there he stopped, looking up at her, and removed his battered hat. Caleb ranged awkwardly up alongside him an

at, oratorically, and then

she drawled in her gent

s if it were an astounding bit

irped briskly. "Comin'

an attempt at d

u! This is my sister, Miss Hunter," he announced to the silent

e boy, mildly. "I'm

b. "Quite so-quite so! S

as the fraction of an inch. But hard upon the heels of Caleb's last words the boy went forward unhesitatin

mile that discovered for her a row of white and even teeth: "Haow dye

ungs; it left Sarah breathless, too. But after an infinitesimal moment of w

erpret the suppressed quality of her voice. "And I-some day I am s

faced her

nd, Mr.-Steve-remain for

see an opening, made

e laughed. "Stay-for-supper! Well, I should hope h

Sarah stood and surveyed her brother's wide and guile

she told him. "Qui

drew to see that the ta

he threshold, and when the man stopped and looked back to ascertain the cause of his delay he found that the boy

weapon into the house, neither, hed I? She might--" He nodded in the direction of Sarah's disappearance-"Old Tom says womin folks that's g

arah's beloved guest-room, after he had seen the rusty coat peeled off as a preface to removing the dust accumulation of the long hot day from hands and face, an inspiration came to him. While the boy was washing, utterly lost to everything but that none-too-simple task,

shooting coat. It's one I got for Sarah-for my sister-but, as you say, women folks are mighty skittish about anything that has to do with a gun.

t. He took it and stared at it with that same strained and hungr

emained parted breathlessly upon the qu

the "injine"-th

in a mirror. In comparison with the dismembered swallowtail it was the purple of a Solomon. There was a cartridge web across its

ketridges," he a

judiciously

some, the first thing i

the time being he merely followed Caleb back downstairs, walking very stiff and straight except

tranger's odd makeup which, coupled with those which he had already mentally tab

is eyes and meet Sarah's inscrutable glance with something akin to triumph. For there was no awkwardness in the boy's procedure, no flushing embarrassment, no shame-facedness nor painfully self-conscious attempt to cover his ignorance. Instead, he sat and waited-sat and watched openly until Miss Sarah had herself selected knife

oms of the woods. Again he confided that he had never before been out of the timber; he explained that "Old Tom's" untimely taking-off a f

Old Tom' was some kin

shook

ver hed no kin. I ain't never hed

her thin lips. But the bird-like movemen

d that the boy didn't even know what the one or the other was. "I ain't never hed nobody but Old Tom. And he was-he wasn't nuthin' but

uestion would savor of indelicacy,

must have been something in the nat

pursed h

en expectin' it, I reckon. Old Tom, he often sed he knew that some day he'd go and git just

f the words we

was too close to the surface fer comfortable swimmin'. The Jenkinses found him down in the slack water, Sunday noon or the

apparently upon a crumb of bread, and was coughing, stranglingly. And Caleb

er, but he reckoned it was lucky in a way fer both of us. He sed he'd whale the life outen me if he ever caught me even smelli

alf dropped lashes. She was peering steadily into the boy's lean, untroubled

, I believe. I suppose that wa

the first time since he had halted, ho

he always sed he mostly favored Brown or Jones or Smith, they bein' quiet and common and not too hard to remember. He just changed names whenever

ich went searching across the table for her brother's eyes. But

saw through to market in Morrison. He touched lightly and inconsequentially upon certain days when Old Tom would hang for hours over an old tin box filled with soiled and ink-smeared memoranda, periods which were always followed by days of moody silence and a week or more of "lessons" in a tattered and thumbed reader wh

Tom's super-cunning with trap and deadfall, and even poison bait. And that bro

e set a heap o' store on thet ole critter. He sed Samanthy was as near to hevin' a woman around the house as anything he knew on-she hed a voice like a stee

until he knew that

out that old tin box?"

hook his

"This time I reckoned his goin' was just about the same thing, only he won't be comin' back, so I-

isted in drooping till the long lashes curled over his cheeks. And in spite of Caleb's remonstrance it was Sara

rose. Her brother, from his seat before the unlighted fireplace, puffed methodically upon his pipe and barely lifted

ery little voice. "He fell asleep almos

dded but his eyes were vaca

"did you give him th

d again-an

'Tell him thanks for me,' he said. 'Tell him I clean forgot it til now!' And as for

ded. The room was q

he murmur

l," she

arn-set you to th

hen she rose and crossed over to his chair and perched

Tom's tin box?"

he n

everything, Sarah. The way he handles himself; the way he looks one in

ed his sp

o'd ever suspect it in a man of

have ideas now and then, even if he does become a-a

ster put one ha

ight paint a great canvas, or model a deathless bronze-or-or lead a lost cause, if he could only be found and provided with the chance. It sounds-it

rted to straighten up. Argument

ance. I just said it for the sake of argument, Cal. I-I'm like Samanthy-ole Samanthy, you know! I'm a woman, and when I git my teeth sot in a argumint I nev

apidly he related to her the episode of the

. "And to-morrow I aim to give that boy a ride in one

so," said

her spoke, nor felt the need for words. Just befo

y, in children of his-his station. His hair is silken and, oh so thick! And his eyes and square chin with

tale little quaver in the voice and found Sa

" he invited her. "And-and trust a woman to ta

she gave him one

to tease you. And if you don't want to trust to a woman's judgment on such points as I have ment

eristic which Sarah had mentioned he found and noted in th

as folded into a small bundle and lay, guarded by one outflung, loo

ld notions whirling in his head, and a