North of Boston | Page 7

tag.?I blamed it on the hot spell we've been having.?'Twas nothing but my foolish hanging back,?Not liking to own up I'd grown a size.?Number eighteen this is. What size do you wear?"?The Doctor caught his throat convulsively.?"Oh--ah--fourteen--fourteen."?"Fourteen! You say so!?I can remember when I wore fourteen.?And come to think I must have back at home?More than a hundred collars, size fourteen.?Too bad to waste them all. You ought to have them.?They're yours and welcome; let me send them to you.?What makes you stand there on one leg like that??You're not much furtherer than where Kike left you.?You act as if you wished you hadn't come.?Sit down or lie down, friend; you make me nervous."?The Doctor made a subdued dash for it,?And propped himself at bay against a pillow.?"Not that way, with your shoes on Kike's white bed.?You can't rest that way. Let me pull your shoes off."?"Don't touch me, please--I say, don't touch me, please. I'll not be put to bed by you, my man."?"Just as you say. Have it your own way then.?'My man' is it? You talk like a professor.?Speaking of who's afraid of who, however,?I'm thinking I have more to lose than you?If anything should happen to be wrong.?Who wants to cut your number fourteen throat!?Let's have a show down as an evidence?Of good faith. There is ninety dollars.?Come, if you're not afraid."?"I'm not afraid.?There's five: that's all I carry."?"I can search you??Where are you moving over to? Stay still.?You'd better tuck your money under you?And sleep on it the way I always do?When I'm with people I don't trust at night."?"Will you believe me if I put it there?Right on the counterpane--that I do trust you?"?"You'd say so, Mister Man.--I'm a collector.?My ninety isn't mine--you won't think that.?I pick it up a dollar at a time?All round the country for the Weekly News,?Published in Bow. You know the Weekly News?"?"Known it since I was young."?"Then you know me.?Now we are getting on together--talking.?I'm sort of Something for it at the front.?My business is to find what people want:?They pay for it, and so they ought to have it.?Fairbanks, he says to me--he's editor--?Feel out the public sentiment--he says.?A good deal comes on me when all is said.?The only trouble is we disagree?In politics: I'm Vermont Democrat--?You know what that is, sort of double-dyed;?The News has always been Republican.?Fairbanks, he says to me, 'Help us this year,'?Meaning by us their ticket. 'No,' I says,?'I can't and won't. You've been in long enough:?It's time you turned around and boosted us.?You'll have to pay me more than ten a week?If I'm expected to elect Bill Taft.?I doubt if I could do it anyway.'"?"You seem to shape the paper's policy."?"You see I'm in with everybody, know 'em all.?I almost know their farms as well as they do."?"You drive around? It must be pleasant work."?"It's business, but I can't say it's not fun.?What I like best's the lay of different farms,?Coming out on them from a stretch of woods,?Or over a hill or round a sudden corner.?I like to find folks getting out in spring,?Raking the dooryard, working near the house.?Later they get out further in the fields.?Everything's shut sometimes except the barn;?The family's all away in some back meadow.?There's a hay load a-coming--when it comes.?And later still they all get driven in:?The fields are stripped to lawn, the garden patches?Stripped to bare ground, the apple trees?To whips and poles. There's nobody about.?The chimney, though, keeps up a good brisk smoking.?And I lie back and ride. I take the reins?Only when someone's coming, and the mare?Stops when she likes: I tell her when to go.?I've spoiled Jemima in more ways than one.?She's got so she turns in at every house?As if she had some sort of curvature,?No matter if I have no errand there.?She thinks I'm sociable. I maybe am.?It's seldom I get down except for meals, though.?Folks entertain me from the kitchen doorstep,?All in a family row down to the youngest."?"One would suppose they might not be as glad?To see you as you are to see them."?"Oh,?Because I want their dollar. I don't want?Anything they've not got. I never dun.?I'm there, and they can pay me if they like.?I go nowhere on purpose: I happen by.?Sorry there is no cup to give you a drink.?I drink out of the bottle--not your style.?Mayn't I offer you----?"?"No, no, no, thank you."?"Just as you say. Here's looking at you then.--?And now I'm leaving you a little while.?You'll rest easier when I'm gone, perhaps--?Lie down--let yourself go and get some sleep.?But first--let's see--what was I going to ask you??Those collars--who shall I address them to,?Suppose you aren't awake when I come back?"?"Really, friend, I can't let you. You--may need them."?"Not till I shrink, when they'll be out of style."?"But really I--I have so many