Life at High Tide | Page 6

no; I am not allowed to finish it."
"Nathaniel, what I was going to say was--I am real poor. I got James's pension, and our house out on the upper road;--do you mind it--a mite of a house, with a big elm right by the gate? And woods on the other side of the road? Real shady and pleasant. And I got eight hens and a cow;--well, she'll come in in September, and I'll have real good milk all winter. Maybe this time I could raise the calf, if it's a heifer. Generally I sell it; but if you--well, it might pay to raise it, if--we--" Lizzie stammered with embarrassment.
Nathaniel had forgotten her again; his head had fallen forward on his breast, and he sighed heavily.
"You see, I am poor," Lizzie said; "you wouldn't have comforts."
Nathaniel was silent.
Lizzie laughed, nervously. "Well? Seems queer; but--will you?"
Nathaniel, waking from his troubled dream, said, patiently: "What did you say? I ask your pardon; I was not listening."
"Why," Lizzie said, her face very red, "I was just saying--if--if you didn't mind getting married, Nathaniel, you could come and live with me?"
"Married?" he said, vacantly. "To whom?"
"Me," she said.
Nathaniel turned toward her in astonishment. "Married!" he repeated.
"If you lived with me, you could finish the machine; there's an attic over my house; I guess it's big enough. Only, we'd have to be married, I'm afraid. Jonesville is a mean place, Nathaniel. We'd have to be married. But you could finish the machine."
He stood up, trembling, the tears suddenly running down his face. _"Finish it?"_ he said, in a whisper. "Oh, you are not deceiving me? You would not deceive me?"
"I don't see why you couldn't finish it," she told him, kindly. "But, Nathaniel, mind, I am poor. You wouldn't get as good victuals even as you would at the Farm. And you'd have to marry me, or folks would talk about me. But you could finish your machine."
Nathaniel lifted his dim eyes to heaven.
III
"Well," said Mrs. Butterfield, "I suppose you know your own business. But my goodness sakes alive!"
"I just thought I'd tell you," Lizzie said.
"But, Lizzie Graham! you ain't got the means."
"I can feed him."
"There's his clothes; why, my land--"
"I told Hiram Wells that if the town would see to his clothes, I'd do the rest. They'd have to clothe him if he went to the Farm."
"Well," said Mrs. Butterfield, "I never in all my born days--Lizzie, now _don't_. My goodness,--I--I ain't got no words! Why, his victuals--"
"He ain't hearty. Sam Dyer told me he wa'n't hearty."
"Well, then, Sam Dyer had better feed him, 'stid o' puttin' it onto you!"
Lizzie was silent. Then she said, with a short sigh, "Course if I could 'a' just taken him in an' kep' him--but you said folks would talk--"
"Well, I guess so. Course they'd talk--you know this place. You've always been well thought of in Jonesville, but that would 'a' been the end of you, far as bein' respectable goes."
"Well, you can't say this ain't respectable."
"No; I can't say it ain't respectable; but I can say it's the foolishest thing I ever heard of. An' wrong too; 'cause anything foolish is wrong."
"Anything cruel is wrong," Lizzie said, stubbornly.
"Well, you was crazy to think of havin' him visit you. But it don't follow, 'cause he can't be visitin' you, that you got to go marry him."
"I got to do something," Lizzie said, desperately; "I'd never have a minute's peace if he had to go to the Farm."
"He'd be more comfortable there."
"His stomach might be," Lizzie admitted.
"Well, then!" Mrs. Butterfield declared, triumphantly. "Now you just let him go, Lizzie. You just be sensible."
"I'm goin' to marry him. I'm goin' to take him round to Rev. Niles day after to-morrow; he said he'd marry us."
Mrs. Butterfield gasped. "Well, if Rev. Niles does that!--There! You know he was a 'Piscopal; they'll do anything. What did he say when you told him?"
"Oh, nothin' much; I asked him about him visitin' me, an' he said it wa'n't just customary. Said it was better to get married. Said we must avoid the appearance of evil."
"Well, I ain't sayin' he ain't right; but--" Then, in despair, she turned to ridicule: "Folks'll say you're marryin' him 'cause you expect he'll make money on his ghost-machine!"
"Well, you tell 'em I don't believe in ghosts. That'll settle that."
"If folks knew you didn't believe in any hereafter, they'd say you was a wicked woman!" cried Mrs. Butterfield, angrily;--"an' that fool machine--"
"I never said I didn't believe in a hereafter. Course his machine ain't sense. That's what makes it so pitiful."
"He'll never finish it."
"Course he won't. That's why I'm takin' him."
"Well, my _sakes!_" said Mrs. Butterfield, helplessly. And then, angrily again, "Course if you set out to go your own way, I suppose you don't expect no help from them as