Old Ebenezer | Page 9

hooked up with a saint."
"I don't know," Lyman replied. "I never tried it."
"I have," said Caruthers, looking at him.
Lyman laughed and rubbed his hands together. "You are the only one that has ever insinuated such a compliment, if you mean that I am a saint. But I hold that there's quite a stretch between a saint and a man who has a desire simply to be honest. Saint--" He laughed again. "Why, the people where I was brought up called me a rake."
"They were angels. But why don't you say where you were 'raised.' Why do you say 'brought up?' You were not brought up; you were raised."
"Yes, that's true, I guess. But we raised vegetables where I was brought up."
"Cabbages?"
"Yes, some cabbages. Round about here, though, they appear to make pumpkins more of a specialty. But come a little nearer with your meaning concerning the saint. I take it that you are tired of the partnership. Am I right?"
"Well," Caruthers spoke up, "we haven't done anything and we have no prospects."
"You are right," said Lyman. "But I am poorer and you are about as well off as you were."
"Do you mean to insinuate--"
"Oh, I don't insinuate, though it's a habit among the people where I was brought up."
"If you don't insinuate, what then? what do you mean?"
"That you've got about all the money I had."
"The devil, you say!"
"I didn't mention the devil. I didn't think it was necessary to speak in the third person of one who is already present."
Caruthers started and took his feet off the table. Lyman regarded him with a cool smile.
"Lyman, I thought that we might have parted friends."
"We can at least part as acquaintances," Lyman replied. "Until a few moments ago I was willing to stand a good deal from you; that part of your principles that I do not like I was willing to ascribe to a difference of opinion, but just now you called me a fool because I had refused to declare those books to be worth a hundred dollars. Up to that time we might have parted in reasonably good humor, but since then I haven't thought very well of you. And you'll have to take it back before you leave."
"You say I'll have to take it back."
"Yes, that's what I said."
"I never had to take anything back."
"No? Then you are about to encounter a new phase of life. Singular, isn't it, that we never know when we are about to stumble upon something new."
"You don't mean----"
"I don't know that I do. But I mean that you'll take that back or carry away a thrashing that will make you stagger. Did you ever see a man wabbling off after a thrashing that he was hardly able to carry? Sad sight sometimes. The last man that I whipped weighed about forty pounds more than I do. He presumed on his weight. But he soon found out that his flesh was very much in his way. He was a saw mill man and a bully; and it so tickled Uncle Buckley that nothing would do but I must come to his house and live as one of the family. Out at Fox Grove a man who won't be imposed upon stands high."
"Lyman, I don't want any trouble, and----"
"Oh, it won't be any trouble."
"And I acknowledge that I was hasty. I take it back, and here's my hand on it."
"I'm obliged to you for taking it back, Caruthers, but I don't want to take your hand. I don't understand it, but a spiritual something seems to have arisen between us."
"All right," said Caruthers, "but I hope we don't part as enemies."
"Oh, no, not as enemies. You speak of parting as if you were the one who has to vacate."
"Yes, I have rented an office over on the other side of the square, on the ground floor."
"It is very kind of you to leave me here," said Lyman. "You might have ordered me out. I am glad you didn't."
"Such a proceeding could never have entered my head," Caruthers replied. "In fact, I thought that if the separation must come you would rather stay here. You appear to have a fondness for that clanking old press out there."
"Yes, I can make it grind out my rent. When are you going to vacate the premises?" Lyman asked, his grave countenance lighted with a smile.
"Now, or rather in a very few minutes."
"Is there anything holding you?"
"Come Lyman, old man, don't jog me that way. And I wish you wouldn't look at me with that sort of a smile. Everybody says you have the kindest face in the world----"
"Without a bristle to hide its sweetness," Lyman broke in.
"Yes," Caruthers assented, "the innocence of a boy grown to manhood without knowing it."
"And you have remained to tell me this?"
"Oh,