Idle Hour Stories by Eugenia Dunlap Potts

E >> Eugenia Dunlap Potts >> Idle Hour Stories

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

IDLE HOUR STORIES

* * * * *

BY
EUGENIA DUNLAP POTTS

Author of
"The Song of Lancaster,"
"A Kentucky Girl in Dixie,"
"Short Mountain Trail,"
"Stories for Children,"
"The Housekeepers' Olio,"
and "Home Talks."

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR

* * * * *

PRESS OF
J.L. RICHARDSON & CO.
LEXINGTON, KY.
1909

* * * * *

DEDICATED

To the memory of my beloved and only son,
George Dunlap Potts, whose young
eyes watched with affectionate
interest the weaving of
these fancies.

* * * * *

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

A THRILLING EXPERIENCE
A CLUSTER OF RIPE FRUIT
THE GHOST AT CRESTDALE
HER CHRISTMAS GIFT
IN A PULLMAN CAR
IN OLD KENTUCKY
HIS GRATITUDE
THE SINGER'S CHRISTMAS
TURNING THE TABLES
HOW SHE HELPED HIM
THE IRON BOX
THE GIRL FARMERS
PROVING A HEART
HEZEKIAH'S WOOING
A SUMMER DAISY
TREESA
MY FIRST JURY CASE
THREE VISITS
IN EASTER DAWN
IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE

POEMS

REVERIE
THE MISER AND THE ANGEL
REST
THE CHANGED CROSS

* * * * *

A Thrilling Experience

MIGHT vs. RIGHT

It is some years since I was station-master, telegraph-operator,
baggage-agent and ticket seller at a little village near some valuable
oil wells.

The station-house was a little distance from the unpretentious
thoroughfare that had grown up in a day, and my duties were so arduous
that I had scarcely leisure for a weekly flitting to a certain mansion
on the hill where dwelt Ellen Morris, my promised wife. In fact, it was
with the hope of lessening the distance between us that I had under
taken these quadruple duties.

The day was gloomy, and towards the afternoon ominous rolls of thunder
portended a storm.

Colonel Holloway, the well-known treasurer of the oil company, had been
in the village several days. About one o'clock he came hurriedly into
the office with a package, which he laid upon my desk, saying:

"Take care of that, Bowen, till to-morrow. I am going up the road."

The commission was not an unusual one, and my safe was one of Marvin's
best. I counted the money, which footed up into the thousands, placed
it in the official envelope, affixed the seals, and deposited it in the
safe. As I turned away from the lock, a voice at the door said:

"Say, mister, can you tell me the way to the post office?"

A sort of shock went through me at the unexpected presence that seemed
to have dropped down from nowhere, and I replied irritably:

"You could not miss it if you tried. Keep straight ahead."

Soon large drops of rain came down, then faster and more furiously, till
the air was one vast sheet of water, and little rivers leaped madly
along the gullies and culverts. Forked lightning kept pace with the
pealing thunder, and heaven's own artillery seemed let loose.

Anything more dismal or dreary could not well be imagined, and gradually
the loneliness grew very oppressive. Every straggler had fled to
shelter, and the usual idlers had deserted the platform.

But I resolutely set to work at the dry statistics of the station-books,
with an occasional call to the wires, which were ticking like mad, so
fierce was the electric current.

It was near five o'clock when a long freight train came lumbering by,
switched off a car or two, then dragged its slow length onward. This
created a brief diversion, then once more I was deserted.

The next passenger train was not due till ten o'clock. I lit the lamps
and resigned myself with questionable patience to the intervening hours.
An agreeable interruption came in the form of my supper, which was
brought in a water-proof basket by a sort of jack-at-all-trades whom we
called Jake. Shaking himself like a great dog, he "lowed there wa'n't
much more water up yonder nohow."

"I hope not, indeed," I said, glad of the sound of a human voice.
"Jake!" I called, as he left the office, "come back as soon as you
can--I may need you."

I had a vague idea of despatching some sort of report to Ellen that I
had not been entirely washed away, and obtaining a similar comfort as
to her own fate. I little thought how I should need him.

I think I am not by nature more timid than other men, but as the dismal
evening closed in I took from my desk two revolvers kept ready for
possible emergencies, and laid one upon the desk where I was making
freight entries and the other on the table where the electric battery
stood. At intervals a fresh package for the night express was brought
by some dripping carrier, who deposited it, got his receipt, hung about
for a few minutes, then hastened away to more comfortable quarters.

Still the rain poured in torrents. It must have been nearly nine o'clock
when a wagon, hurriedly driven, pulled up suddenly at the platform. In a
moment the door was flung open, and I saw a small ambulance well known
about the village. Two men sprang out, and with the help of the driver
and his assistant, proceeded to lift out a box which from its dimensions
could contain only one kind of freight, to wit, the remains of a human
being.

Carefully placing this box in a remote corner of the room, near other
boxes awaiting transportation, the driver and his man returned to their
wagon, while the two strangers approached the desk to enter their
ghastly freight. They wore slouched hats and were very wet. They
produced a death certificate of one John Slate, who had died at a farm
house several miles away, of a non-contagious complaint, and was to be
shipped to his friends down the road. This was all. There was nothing
singular about it, and yet when the door closed upon the strangers and
I was again alone, or worse than alone a feeling of awe came over me.
Clearly the storm had somewhat unstrung me.

Only one hour till the train was due, after which I could turn in for
the night.

A louder peal of thunder shook the house, and fiercer flashed the
lightning. Minute after minute went by, and each seemed an age. The
roar and din of the elements only deepened the gloom inside, where the
uncertain kerosene lamp darkened the shadows.

Suddenly to my overstrained nerves the ceaseless clicking of the
instrument seemed to say, "Watch the box--watch the box--watch the box."
As a particular strain of melody will at times repeat itself in the
mind, and obstinately keep time to every movement, till one is well-nigh
distracted, so this refrain began to enchain every sense: "Watch the
box--watch the box--watch the box." Till now my depressed spirits were
due only to the solitude and the storm. No suspicion of evil or danger
had tormented me.

Peering more closely into the dingy corner, I saw only the ordinary pine
box, with what seemed to be a square paper, or placard, on the side
facing me. Probably the address, bunglingly adjusted on the side instead
of the top, or else a stain of mud from the late rough drive. At all
events I was not curious enough to approach more nearly the ghostly
visitant.

Ten minutes had crept by, when a muffled noise in the dark corner
distinctly sounded above the pelting raindrops, while as if to mock at
my quickened fears, the wires continued their monotonous warning,
"Watch the box--watch the box--watch the box." I did watch the box, and
now as if by inspiration I grasped the situation. There was indeed a man
in the box, but not a dead one. A living man who had boldly lent himself
to a plot to rob or murder me, or perhaps both.

I remembered the straggler who had surprised me while at the safe,
several hours before. He had doubtless followed Col. Holloway and
witnessed the money transaction. Quick and fast flew my thoughts in the
startled endeavor to grasp some plan of action. Single-handed I was no
match for any man, having recently recovered from an attack of malarial
fever. This one in the box (if indeed there was one) must mean to secure
the prize before the train was due, and escape the consequences. He must
have accomplices, and these were doubtless on watch, either to give or
receive a signal. At least it was not probable that he would undertake
the job alone, and the fact that he had confederates had already
appeared.

Perhaps the sight of my pistol had delayed the attack. Perhaps some part
of their plan had miscarried and caused delay. At all events I must be
cool. I fancied I saw his eyes through the dark patch on the box. I was
almost sure he was slowly lifting the lid. There was no help near, and
much might be done in the time still to elapse before the train was due.

Quietly walking to the battery, I feigned to take a message. In reality
I sent one to the conductor of the on-coming express, as the only device
whereby I could secure assistance, and this would doubtless come too
late. Yet it was all I could do just now.

With every sense on the alert I arose to secrete my key if possible,
when the door burst open, and Frank Morris, my future brother-in-law,
rushed in, followed by a huge dog that was Ellen's special pet and
attendant.

"Confound you!" said Frank, spluttering about and shaking himself as
vigorously as the dog. "I'll be blowed if I ever go on such a fool's
errand as this."

"Why you are pretty well 'blowed'" I said, with a poor attempt to be
funny, but immensely relieved.

"I never was so glad to see anybody in my life!" and I meant it.

"There it is," he said; "make much of it" as he cleverly flipped a
little white missive over to me. "Such billing and cooing I never want
to see again. Regular spoons, by jove! Can't go to sleep till she knows
you have not been melted, or washed away, or something. And Cato must
come along to see that her precious brother doesn't get lost. Ugh! Lie
down over there, old fellow!" Then to me he said; "Here help me out of
this wet thing."

But I was engrossed just then, so ridding him of the offending garment,
the broad-shouldered young athlete strode about the room in mock
impatience.

"Heavens! what a night!" he exclaimed. "What time does your train pass?
Ten? Just three minutes. I guess I'll stay; but we will have that young
damsel floating down here if she doesn't hear pretty soon."

"Hello, Cato, what's the matter?" as the dog gave a low growl, "what's
that in the corner, Bowen?"

The dog continued to growl and look suspiciously as the young fellow
rattled on. "That," I said, "is a dead man."

"Humph!" he laughed. "Jolly good company for such a night. I say, Bowen,
you've got a nice toy there," and he took up the pistol that lay on the
table. In the meanwhile I had scrawled on piece of paper, which I had
quietly placed near the pistol: "The man in the box is a burglar. Be
ready for an attack."

"Oh that's the game!" he said aloud, and instantly strode across the
room, as Cato sprang up and barked furiously at the box. Simultaneously
the top of the box flew up, and uttering a shrill whistle, the man
sprang to a sitting posture, while through the wide-flung door the
other two ruffians appeared with pistols cocked, At once there began a
deadly struggle. The dog had leaped upon the box and knocked the "dead"
man's pistol out of his hand, as Frank shouted, "Toho Cato!" unwilling
that the dog should tear him to pieces, but wishing to keep him at bay.

"Your keys!" yelled the other men; "or by heavens, you'll drop!"

Instantly closing in, man to man, the fierce struggle went on amid
shouts, oaths and pistol shots.

"Call off your cursed dog!" screamed the "dead" man continually.

The encounter, which had occupied scarcely a minute, was at its
deadliest, both Frank and I endeavoring to disarm rather than kill, when
the whistle of the train sounded, and in another moment the conductor
and his men were among us, "Seize that scoundrel!" shouted Frank
breathlessly, indicating the man in the box. "Here Cato!" and the
obedient animal unwillingly retired, but continued his savage growl.

At this juncture my man fell to the floor, badly wounded in the leg, and
uttering groans and imprecations. It was quick work to secure the men,
and Jake, who opportunely reappeared, was sent to summon the village
police. Some of the passengers, impatient at the delay, had got wind of
the adventure, and now crowded into the station in no little excitement.
The box was found to have a false side-piece next to the wall, which was
easily pushed down by the man inside, for greater comfort in his cramped
position; and there were besides a number of air holes. It was the
moving of the side-panel that caused the muffled noise I had heard.

I was questioned in all possible ways, and the curiosity of the
passengers was fully gratified amid the clamor of the prisoners, who
continually swore at each other. "What did you wait so infernal long
for?" said one of them, glaring at the "dead" man.

"What was your infernal hurry?" retorted the other, sarcastically.

It was plain from the quarrel that ensued that the sight of my pistols
and my evident uneasiness, together with effect of the fearful storm,
which confused all signals, had unsettled the fellow's plan, and had
robbed him of his presence of mind. While puzzling as to the safest
course, the sudden entrance of Frank and the dog had precipitated the
catastrophe.

The men were conducted to the County Jail, and I was the hero of the
hour, although I could not claim much credit for personal valor in the
matter.

Was it Fate or Providence that befriended me? But for my presentiment,
or what ever it might be, I should have urged Frank's immediate return
to my anxious betrothed. But for her loving anxiety he never would have
come down on such a night. But for the dog one of us must have been
killed. And first of all, but for the instinctive sense of danger the
telegraph wires would never have spoken a warning to my excited fancy;
and this manifest feeling of apprehension, though I strove hard to
conceal it, held the man in the box at bay.

The practical result of the episode was a more commodious station-house,
and more men on duty. My salary was raised; but eventually I gave up the
situation because my wife could never feel satisfied to have me perform
night work after the fearful experience I have related.

As to Frank, he is not backward with explosive English whenever the
subject is mentioned, and no amount of persuasion could ever reconcile
Cato to the station-room.

A Cluster of Ripe Fruit

CHARACTER STUDY

They were five sisters, all unmarried; they lived in the old Dutch town
that was made memorable by Barbara Frietchie's exploits. They never
hoisted a Union flag, or did any grand thing; but they deserve a place
in story just the same. Their name was Peyre, and the young people
called them "The Pears", not in derision, for the regard they inspired
was little short of veneration. Their ages ranged from sixty-five to
eighty years when I first knew them. Unlike the Hannah More quintette,
they were not literary. But no hive of busy bees was ever more
industrious than they in the line of purely feminine accomplishments.

"The Pears" were not poor, but they were frugal. They owned a
comfortable two-story brick house on a quiet street, and let their
ground floor to a small tradesman. The way to the sisters led along
a smoothly-paved side alley, all fenced in, through a little kitchen
with spotless floor and shining tins, up a narrow, crooked, snow-white
stairway, and finally through funny little chambers, up two steps, or
down three, till the workshop was reached. There they sat, clean and
fresh and busy, each in her own nook; and just there they might have
been found every day these sixty years.

The workshop had the appearance of tidy fullness. An everlasting quilt
was stretched across the end window, and here Miss Becky had laid her
chalk-lines and pricked her fingers through several generations. The
faithful fingers were brown and crooked, she said, from rheumatism; but
how could they be straight when eternally bent over the patchwork?
Surely the quilt was not always the same; yet the frames were never
empty, and the chair was never vacant.

Miss Polly was housekeeper and cook, with Miss Phoebe to run errands, do
the marketing, visit the needy, and supervise generally. Some one must
have done the mending and darning and laundry work, but I never saw any
of that.

Miss Sophie (the sisters said Suffy) was the knitter and her needles
were never still. Always a gray yarn stocking, and never any appearance
of the finished pair. Go when you would,--and the dear ladies were not
alone many hours,--the knitting was on and going on.

Miss Chrissy was the beauty. Ages ago there had been a tradition of a
lover, but nothing came of it. Perhaps they had all five lived out their
little romances--who could tell? A certain homage was paid to the
beauty. Her once brilliant auburn hair had paled to grayish sandy bands
that lay smooth under a cap which was always a little pretentious. Her
dark eyes and smiling lips made the soft white old face passing fair.
Miss Chrissy was the embroiderer and needle-work artist. Her treasures
of scallops and points and eyelets and wheels, all traced in ink upon
bits of letter-paper, were kept in a big square yellow box that was
bristling and bursting at all points.

This box was marvellous. There could never have been but one other in
the world; and that I had seen under my great-grandmother's bed, the bed
that had its dainty white frill, and its glazed calico curtains of gay
paradise birds. They were all of a piece and not easily forgotten. The
box had seen hard service among the "Pears." It was cross-stitched up
and down the corner's along the bottom and the top, and all around. It
never occurred to them to get a new one. Like their old Bible, its
places could be found.

I went, one frosty autumn day, to get a pattern for silk embroidery.
Stamping-blocks and tracing-wheels were unknown quantities to Miss
Chrissy. Her stumpy little pencil--and that, too, seemed always the
same--had to do the transfering. She liked a bit of harmless gossip,
dear soul; and the young girls of the town made a point of supplying the
lack of a newspaper with their busy tongues. So she knew at once who
I was.

"Oh," she said, with her kindly smile, "you are young Mrs. John: I
remember when your husband was a babe. I think I can find it;--yes, it
is down in this corner,"--rummaging in the yellow box; "here it is--the
pattern your aunt,--Mrs. John, selected for your husband's first short
dress. All the Hunt family were customers of ours. Mrs. John, she
they called Aunt Lou, was a great favorite. She was rich, and had no
children. Well, she came one day all in a flurry to get a pattern--a
nice wide one she said, for little John's dress. He was the first baby,
and they fairly idolized him. This is it. I recollect the wheel and the
overcasting. It was--let me see--forty years ago, come this December.
Now, this little scallop is as popular as any" and she fished up
another, all full of needle-pricks. "Some ladies don't like much
embroidery, but they want a little finish. This one trimmed a set of
linen for Mrs. Senator Jones. It took me a good while to draw it. She
don't like this turn in the corner, so I made up something else. You
know I design my own patterns."

Then resisting the temptation to give the history of the rest of her
favorites, she put the box aside and turned her attention to the quart
bottle in hand, with its strip of muslin stretched tight around it,
over a bewildering collection of grapes and leaves. This was her method,
and the admiring sisters thought it perfect.

That night I teased John's mother into hunting up the dress, and there
was the identical pattern, edging the fine white cambric now yellow with
age. She was amused at my report of Miss Chrissy.

In my annual journeyings to the old town I never neglected "The Pears."
They always looked as if I had just stepped out for an hour, and come
back. The carpet did not wear out; the stove never lacked luster; the
tiny window-panes were always just washed, and the diligent fingers went
on just the same. They had a quaint way not easy to describe. When one
talked all the rest chimed in with little whispering echoes, to support
the assertion; and yet they did not seem to interrupt. They were to me
living wonders, so perfectly unspotted from the world, so earnest in
their pigmy money-making, and so thoroughly united, I felt consumed with
curiosity as to their inner life. They must sometimes put by the
quilting and the knitting and the patterns.

"How do you interest yourselves evenings, Miss Chrissy?" I asked, half
ashamed of the question.

"Oh, we read," she said, smiling her ready smile. "Yes, read," echoed
Miss Suffy and the rest. "We read Sunday-School books, and our Bible,
of course. Sometimes we don't go to bed till ten o'clock."

"Ten o'clock--o'clock--o'clock," assented the gentle voices. It was not
silly; the smiling faces all wore the sweet, simple look of guileless
childhood.

Miss Suffy's window overlooked a time honored graveyard, where gray
slabs were tottering. Next to her beloved patterns and their varied
experiences, Miss Chrissy liked to tell of scenes and memories suggested
by these somber reminders.

"It was a very cold day, Mrs. John," (so she always called me), "when
they buried your husband's uncle out there. Poor fellow! He was shot
at Buena Vista. A cannon-ball took off both his legs, and went right
through the horse he rode. He was a gallant officer. They thought at
first he would rally. The surgeons did their work quickly, and he
suffered little or no pain, but there was no chloroform in that day, and
he died from the shock. The snow was deep on the ground, but it was a
grand funeral. They've got a fine new cemetery out on the hill, but we
never go there. Our dead are all here where we can see their graves."

"Graves," came the echo, they had all along nodded, or murmured, assent.

"One of the saddest funerals we have ever seen." Miss Chrissy went on,
"was a double funeral. Two young men, both only sons, were drowned in
the river while bathing. Their mothers were widows. It was terrible. Two
hearses and two long lines of mourners. There they lie--over there in
that enclosure. They were cousins, and were buried side by side."

"The mothers, Chrissy!" mildly prompted the whisper, when the narrator
paused.

"Yes, the mothers! one died of a broken heart, and the other lost her
mind outright. She is living yet, an old woman, who regularly goes to
the front door of the asylum every morning and takes her seat. If it is
cold weather, she sits inside. She asks every one who enters if Luther
is coming--that was her boy's name."

"Did you know the first Mrs. John Hunt, Miss Chrissy--my husband's
grandmother?" I asked, willing to change the gloomy subject.

"Just as well as I know you, Mrs. John. She was a beautiful little
woman, I was very young at the time I am thinking of. She sent at night
for an embroidered flannel I was doing. It was my first wide pattern,
and it went slow. At 10 o'clock it was finished, and my father went with
me to take it home. They were all going to Washington to the President's
ball--President Monroe, it was--and the trunk was packing. It was to go
on the big traveling-coach. When I ran up stairs and knocked,--I had
often been there before--she opened the door herself. 'Oh, it's you
Chrissy,' she said in her pleasant way; 'come in child; don't you want
to see something pretty?' And she showed me two elegant brocaded silk
gowns, very narrow and very short-waisted, but stiff enough to stand
alone.'

"She praised my work and said I was a good girl. Then she paid me the
money and tied a little blue silk handkerchief around my neck for a
keepsake. 'There,' she said, in her quick voice, 'you may go.' I did
many other patterns for the family, but poor lady! she never saw me
again. She had an illness and lost her eyesight. She was stone blind for
many years. I have the keepsake yet. It is put away in the hair-trunk."

The sisters were all in full sympathy, as usual. Thus I sat and listened
scores of times, making a pretence of wanting a pattern,--anything to
get Miss Chrissy story-telling.

In the centennial year I found "The Pears" much shaken from their even
tenor. The relic-hunters had penetrated their omnium gatherum and
offered fabulous sums for the quaint old bits they found there. One of
them declared he must and would have these wonders for the New England
Kitchen. But the sisters were outraged. Adroitly I managed to hint a
desire to see those treasures inestimable, and then for the first time I
moved from my accustomed seat, and they moved from theirs. The magnitude
of their wrongs would admit of nothing like routine or monotony. The
chairs were pushed back, and I saw five tall, slim figures standing
erect, in straight black gowns, white kerchiefs and spotless caps. They
were devout Lutherans, and their pew at the Sunday service was never
vacant; but I had never seen them outside the workshop.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12