The Master-Knot of Human Fate | Page 4

the main
room. At one side of it was a primitive dresser, with such utensils and
china as the place afforded; on the other were some miner's implements
and a shovel. There was a small table and beside it were placed two
chairs. There was a rocker by the one window, and a pot of geraniums
on the sill; forming a kind of window seat was a long seaman's chest.
At the other end of the room there was a desk covered with green
oilcloth, and above it was a shelf containing some books and a clock.
The woman took off her hat and jacket and brushed back her hair, then
turning back her sleeves went outdoors again. Under the rude porch on
a slab table stood a number of buckets, and there was a stool by the
door. She took a bucket and the stool and walked away a few paces, the

Alderney following. As she began milking she looked over her
shoulder at the man watching her and said, "Won't you build a fire?"
He gathered some wood and went into the cabin. She threw out the first
pint or so of milk, then finished milking and strained the foaming
contents of her pail into some crocks left sunning by the door, and went
into the house. She found some cornmeal and salt, and deftly mixed the
dough, and arranging the shovel in the hot ashes, set her hoe-cake to
bake. In the mean time the man had brought water from the brook, and
as the woman swung the crane over the blaze, he filled the iron kettle
hanging therefrom. There was some sour milk, and by a mysterious
process she converted it into Dutch cheese. There was some butter and
a few eggs, and she found a white cloth and spread the table with the
few poor dishes, placing the geranium in the centre. As the water
steamed and boiled, she caught up a tin canister.
"See," she said with forced gayety; "let us eat, drink, and be merry, for
there is just enough tea in the world for two people to drink once!"
She made the beverage and poured it into the thick cups, and breaking
the yellow pone and piling it on a platter, they sat down to the strangest
meal they had ever known.
The man watched her with fascinated eyes. He had never before seen
her do anything for herself, yet she presided over the simple meal she
had prepared as graciously as over the course dinners of her chef. How
should she know how to make hoe-cake?
All through the singular feast the sparkle and play of her fancy kept
them in hysterical laughter. Afterwards, as she cleared away, the same
wild mood possessed her. The man wondered if her mind was going
with all else; but as she hung up the towel, her humor changed, and she
ran out of the cabin into the dusk as if she could not bear the simple,
homely tasks in a homeless world, the firelight and the bounds of a
dwelling when doom must be at hand. The man put a fresh log on the
fire, and covered the coals with ashes. He would have preferred to
remain there, but he knew why she was hurrying back to the
mountain-side, and he took her coat and followed her. She was

standing by the boulder, looking out over the waters with a despair on
her face that made him groan. It was so like what he felt in his heart.
She pointed weakly toward the water, but her lips formed no words.
"Yes," he answered, "it was not a dream."
Dawn found them still sitting by the boulder. The man shook her half
roughly.
"Come," he said, "let us go back to the cabin."
"No," she answered. "I cannot believe it; we are both mad. We are
dreaming the same mad dream; let us go down, and when we feel the
spray on our faces, and taste the brine, it will be time enough to
believe."
She began the descent with reckless rapidity, and he followed, checking
and holding her back. The roar of the surf grew momentarily louder,
but though she looked at him with wild, grieved eyes, she went on. A
monster wave dashed up over the rocks and wet them to the skin. She
flung out her arms, and would have fallen headlong into the greedy,
crawling water, but he caught her and made his way back. The hot,
bitter tears on her face brought her to herself, and with one great sob
she broke down, clinging to him and crying till from sheer exhaustion
she fell asleep.
He carried her back to the cottage and laid her gently on the bed in the
tiny