Main-Travelled Roads | Page 7

fit."
"Another thing," said David. "I can't have you fellers carryin' grain,
going to the house too often for fried cakes or cookies."
"Now you git out," said Bill Young from the straw pile. "You ain't goin'
to have all the fun to yerself."
Will's blood began to grow hot in his face. If Bill had said much more,

or mentioned her name, he would have silenced him. To have this
rough joking come so close upon the holiest and most exquisite
evening of his life was horrible. It was not the words they said, but the
tones they used, that vulgarized it all. He breathed a sigh of relief when
the sound of the machine began again.
This jesting made him more wary, and when the call for dinner
sounded and he knew he was going in to see her, he shrank from it. He
took no part in the race of the dust-blackened, half-famished men to get
at the washing place first. He took no part in the scurry to get seats at
the first table.
Threshing time was always a season of great trial to - the housewife. To
have a dozen men with the appetites of dragons to cook for was no
small task for a couple of women, in addition to their other everyday
duties. Preparations usually began the night before with a raid on a hen
roost, for "biled chickun" formed the piece de resistance of the dinner.
The table, enlarged by boards, filled the sitting room. Extra seats were
made out of planks placed on chairs, and dishes were borrowed of
neighbors who came for such aid, in their turn.
Sometimes the neighboring women came in to help; but Agnes and her
mother were determined to manage the job alone this year, and so the
girl, with a neat dark dress, her eyes shining, her cheeks flushed with
the work, received the men as they came in dusty, coatless, with grime
- behind their ears, but a jolly good smile on every face.
Most of them were farmers of the neighborhood and schoolmates. The
only one she shrank from was Young, with his hard, glittering eyes and
red, sordid face. She received their jokes, their noise, with a silent smile
which showed her even teeth and dimpled her round cheek.- "She was
good for sore eyes," as one of the fellows said to Shep. She seemed
deliciously sweet and dainty to these roughly dressed fellows.
They ranged along the table with a great deal of noise, boots thumping,
squeaking, knives and forks rattling, voices bellowing out.
"Now hold on, Steve! Can't have yeh so near that chickun!"

"Move along, Shep! I want to be next to the kitchen door! I won't get
nothin' with you on that side o' me."
"Oh, that's too thin! I see what you're-"
"No, I won't need any sugar, if you just smile into it." This from gallant
David, greeted with roars of laughter.
"Now, Dave, s'pose your wife 'ud hear o' that?"
"She'd snatch 'im bald-headed, that's what she'd do."
"Say, somebody drive that ceow down this way," said Bill.
"Don't get off that drive! It's too old," criticised Shep, passing the milk
jug.
Potatoes were seized, cut in halves, sopped in gravy, and taken one,
two! Corn cakes went into great jaws like coal into a steam engine.
Knives in the right hand cut and scooped gravy up. Great, muscular,
grimy, but wholesome fellows they were, feeding like ancient Norse,
and capable of working like demons. They were deep in the process;
half-hidden by steam from the potatoes and stew, in less than sixty
seconds from their entrance.
With a shrinking from the comments of the others upon his regard for
Agnes, Will assumed a reserved and almost haughty air toward his
fellow workmen, and a curious coldness toward her. As he went in, she
came forward smiling brightly.
"There's one more place, Will." A tender, involuntary droop in her
voice betrayed her, and Will felt a wave of hot blood surge over him as
the rest roared.
"Ha, ha! Oh, there'd be a place for him!"
"Don't worry, Will! Always room for you here!"
Will took his seat with a sudden angry flame. "Why can't she keep it

from these fools?" was his thought. He didn't even thank her for
showing him the chair.
She flushed vividly, but smiled back. She was so proud and happy, she
didn't care very much if they did know it. But as Will looked at her
with that quick angry glance, and took his seat with scowling brow, she
was hurt and puzzled. She redoubled her exertions to please him, and
by so doing added to the amusement of the crowd that gnawed chicken
bones, rattled cups, knives and forks, and joked