Poor White | Page 6

work well and carefully but nothing came of it. Officials of
the railroad sometimes passed through the town riding in private cars
hitched to the end of one of the through trains, but the trains did not
stop and the officials did not alight and, calling Henry out of the station,
reward his faithfulness by piling new responsibilities upon him, as
railroad officials did in such cases in the stories she read. When her
father died and she saw a chance to again turn her face eastward and to
live again among her own people, she told her husband to resign his
position with the air of one accepting an undeserved defeat. The station
master managed to get Hugh appointed in his place, and the two people
went away one gray morning in October, leaving the tall ungainly
young man in charge of affairs. He had books to keep, freight waybills
to make out, messages to receive, dozens of definite things to do. Early
in the morning before the train that was to take her away, came to the
station, Sarah Shepard called the young man to her and repeated the
instructions she had so often given her husband. "Do everything neatly
and carefully," she said. "Show yourself worthy of the trust that has
been given you."
The New England woman wanted to assure the boy, as she had so often
assured her husband, that if he would but work hard and faithfully
promotion would inevitably come; but in the face of the fact that Henry
Shepard had for years done without criticism the work Hugh was to do
and had received neither praise nor blame from those above him, she
found it impossible to say the words that arose to her lips. The woman
and the son of the people among whom she had lived for five years and
had so often condemned, stood beside each other in embarrassed
silence. Stripped of her assurance as to the purpose of life and unable to
repeat her accustomed formula, Sarah Shepard had nothing to say.
Hugh's tall figure, leaning against the post that supported the roof of the
front porch of the little house where she had taught him his lessons day
after day, seemed to her suddenly old and she thought his long solemn

face suggested a wisdom older and more mature than her own. An odd
revulsion of feeling swept over her. For the moment she began to doubt
the advisability of trying to be smart and to get on in life. If Hugh had
been somewhat smaller of frame so that her mind could have taken
hold of the fact of his youth and immaturity, she would no doubt have
taken him into her arms and said words regarding her doubts. Instead
she also became silent and the minutes slipped away as the two people
stood before each other and stared at the floor of the porch. When the
train on which she was to leave blew a warning whistle, and Henry
Shepard called to her from the station platform, she put a hand on the
lapel of Hugh's coat and drawing his face down, for the first time kissed
him on the cheek. Tears came into her eyes and into the eyes of the
young man. When he stepped across the porch to get her bag Hugh
stumbled awkwardly against a chair. "Well, you do the best you can
here," Sarah Shepard said quickly and then out of long habit and half
unconsciously did repeat her formula. "Do little things well and big
opportunities are bound to come," she declared as she walked briskly
along beside Hugh across the narrow road and to the station and the
train that was to bear her away.
After the departure of Sarah and Henry Shepard Hugh continued to
struggle with his inclination to give way to dreams. It seemed to him a
struggle it was necessary to win in order that he might show his respect
and appreciation of the woman who had spent so many long hours
laboring with him. Although, under her tutelage, he had received a
better education than any other young man of the river town, he had
lost none of his physical desire to sit in the sun and do nothing. When
he worked, every task had to be consciously carried on from minute to
minute. After the woman left, there were days when he sat in the chair
in the telegraph office and fought a desperate battle with himself. A
queer determined light shone in his small gray eyes. He arose from the
chair and walked up and down the station platform. Each time as he
lifted one of his long feet and set it slowly down a special little effort
had to be made.