Flood Tide Page 6

  CHAPTER VI

  MARRYING AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE

  That afternoon, after making this elaborate but by no means misleadingexplanation to Willie, Bob sent off to a Boston jeweler a registeredpackage and while impatiently awaiting its return set to work withredoubled zest at the new invention.

  What an amazingly different aspect the motor-boat enterprise hadassumed since yesterday! Then his one idea had been to humor Willie'swhim and in return for the old man's hospitality lend such aid to theundertaking as he was able. But now Zenas Henry's launch had suddenlybecome a glorified object, sacred to the relatives of the divinity ofthe workshop, and how and where the flotsam of the tides ensnared itwas of colossal importance. Into solving the nautical enigma RobertMorton now threw every ounce of his energy and while at work artfullydrew from his companion every detail he could obtain of DelightHathaway's strange story.

  He learned how the _Michleen_ had been wrecked on the Wilton Shoals inthe memorable gale of 1910; how the child's father had perished withthe ship, leaving his little daughter friendless in the world; howZenas Henry and the three aged captains had risked their lives to bringthe little one ashore; and how the Brewsters had taken her into theirhome and brought her up. It was a simple tale and simply told, but theheroism of the romance touched it with an epic quality that gripped thelistener's imagination and sympathies tenaciously. And now the waifsnatched from the grasp of the covetous sea had blossomed into thisexquisite being; this creature beloved, petted, and well-nigh spoiledby a proudly exultant community.

  For although legally a member of the Brewster family, Willie explained,the girl had come to belong in a sense to the entire village. Had shenot been cast an orphan upon its shores, and were not its treacherousshoals responsible for her misfortune? Wilton, to be sure, was notactually answerable for the crimes those hidden sand bars perpetrated,but nevertheless the fisherfolk could not quite shake themselves freeof the shadow cast upon them by the tragedies ever occurring at theirgateway. Too many of their people had gone down to the sea in shipsnever to return for them to become callous to the disasters they werecontinually forced to witness. The wreck of the _Michleen_ had beenone of the most pathetic of these horrors, and the welfare of the childwho in consequence of it had come into the hamlet's midst had become amatter of universal concern.

  "'Tain't to be wondered at the girl is loved," continued Willie. "Atfirst people took an interest in her, or tried to, from a sense ofduty, for you couldn't help bein' sorry for the little thing. But'twarn't long before folks found out 'twarn't no hardship to be fond ofDelight Hathaway. She was livin' sunshine, that's what she was!Wherever she went, be it one end of town or t'other, she broughthappiness. In time it got so that if you was to drop in where therewas sickness or trouble an' spied a nosegay of flowers, you could bepretty sure Delight had been there. Why, Lyman Bearse's father, oldLyman, that's so crabbed with rhumatism that it's a cross to live underthe same roof with him, will calm down gentle as a dove when Delightgoes to read to him. As for Mis' Furber, I reckon she'd never get tothe Junction to do a mite of shoppin' or marketin' but for Delightstayin' with the babies whilst she was gone. I couldn't tell you halfwhat that girl does. She's here, there, an' everywhere. Now she'sgettin' up a party for the school children; now makin' a birthday cakefor somebody; now trimmin' a bunnit for Tiny or helpin' her plan out adress."

  Willie stopped to rummage on a distant shelf for a level.

  "Once," he went on, "Sarah Libbie Lewis asked me what Delight was goin'to be. I told her there warn't no goin' to be about it; Delight wasbein' it right now. She didn't need to go soundin' for a mission inlife."

  "I take it you are not in favor of careers for women, Mr. Spence,"observed Robert Morton, who had been eagerly drinking in every word theold man uttered.

  "Yes, I am," contradicted the inventor. "There's times when a girlneeds a career, but there's other times when to desert one's plain dutyan' go huntin' a callin' is criminal. Queer how people will look rightover the top of what they don't want to see, ain't it? I s'pose itshuman nature though," he mused.

  A soft breeze stirred the shavings on the floor.

  "Tiny thinks," resumed the quiet voice, "that I mix myself up too muchwith other folks's concerns anyhow. Leastways, she says I let theirtroubles weigh on me more'n I'd ought. But to save my life I can'tseem to help it. Don't you believe those on the outside of a tanglesometimes see it straighter than them that is snarled up in the mess?"

  Robert Morton nodded.

  "That's the way I figger it," rambled on the old man. "Mebbe that'sthe reason I can't keep my fingers out of the pie. You'd be surprisedenough if you was to know the things I've been dragged into in mylifetime; family quarrels, will-makin's, business matters that I didn'tknow no more about than the man in the moon. Why, I've even taken ahand in love affairs!"

  He broke into a peal of hearty laughter. "That's the beatereee!" hedeclared, slapping his thigh. "'Magine me up to my ears in a loveaffair! But I have been--scores of 'em, enough I reckon, put 'em alltogether, to marry off the whole of Cape Cod."

  "You must be quite an authority on the heart by this time," RobertMorton ventured.

  "I ain't," the other declared soberly. "You see, none of the snarlswas ever the same, so you kinder had to feel your way along every timelike as if you was navigatin' a new channel. Women may be all alike,take 'em in the main, but they're almighty different when you get 'emto the fine point, an' that's what raises the devil with makin' anygeneral rule for managin' 'em."

  The philosopher held the piece of wood he had been planing to the lightand examined it critically.

  "Once," he resumed, taking up his work again, "when Dave Furber wascourtin' Katie Bearse, I drove over to Sawyer's Falls with him to getKatie a birthday present an' among other things we thought we'd buysome candy. We went into a store, I recollect, where there was allkinds spread out in trays, an' Dave an' me started to pick out whatwe'd have. As I stood there attemptin' to decide, I couldn't helpthinkin' that selectin' that candy was a good deal like choosin' awife. You couldn't have all the different kinds, an' makin' up yourmind which you preferred was a seven-days' conundrum."

  The little inventor took off his spectacles, wiped them, and replacedthem upon his nose.

  "Luckily, as we was fixed, there was a chance in the box for quite afew sorts, so that saved the day. But s'pose, I got to thinkin', youcould only have one variety out of the lot--which would you take?That's the sticker you face when choosin' a wife. S'pose, forinstance, I was pinned down to nothin' but caramels. The caramel is agood, square, sensible, dependable candy. You can see through thepaper exactly what you're gettin'. There's nothin' concealed orlurkin' in a caramel. Moreover, it lasts a long time an' you don't gettired of it. It's just like some women--not much to look at, butwholesome an' with good wearin' qualities. Should you choose thecaramel, you'd feel sure you was doin' the wise thing, wouldn't you?"

  Robert Morton smiled into the half-closed blue eyes that met his sowhimsically.

  "But along in the next tray to the caramel," Willie went on, "wasbonbons--every color of the rainbow they were, an' pretty as could be;an' they held all sorts of surprises inside 'em, too. They wastemptin'! But the minute you put your mind on it you knew they'd turnout sweet and sickish, an' that after gettin' 'em you'd wish youhadn't. There's plenty of women like that in the world. Mebbe youain't seen 'em, but I have."

  "Yes."

  "Besides these, there was dishes of sparklin' jelly things on thecounter, that the girl said warn't much use--gone in no time; they werejust meant to dress up the box. I called 'em brainless candies--justsilly an' expensive, an' if you look around you'll find women can match'em. An' along with 'em you can put the candied violets an' sugaredrose leaves that only make a man out of pocket an' ain't a mite of useto him."

  Willie scanned his companion's face earnestly.

  "Finally, after runnin' the collection over, it kinder come down to achoice be
tween caramels or chocolates. Even then I still stood firmfor the caramel, there bein' no way of makin' sure what I'd get insidethe chocolate. I warn't willin' to go it blind, I told Dave. Achocolate's a sort of unknowable thing, ain't it? There's no fathomin'it at sight. After you've got it you may be pleased to death withwhat's inside it an' then again you may not. So we settled mostly oncaramels for Katie. I said to Dave comin' home it was lucky men warn'theld down to one sort of candy like they are to one sort of wife, an'he most laughed his head off. Then he asked me what kind of sweet Ithought Katie was, an' I told him I reckoned she was the caramelvariety, an' he said he thought so, too. We warn't fur wrong neither,for she's turned out 'bout as we figgered. Mebbe she ain't got thelooks or the sparkle of the bonbons or jelly things, but she's wornalmighty well, an' made Dave a splendid wife."

  "With all your excellent theories about women, I wonder you neverpicked out a wife for yourself, Mr. Spence," Robert Morton remarkedmischievously.

  "Me get married?" questioned Willie, staring at the speaker open-eyedover the top of his spectacles.

  "Why not?"

  "Why, bless your heart, I never thought of it!" answered the little mannaively. "It's taken 'bout all my time to get other folks splicedtogether. Besides," he added, "I've had my inventin'."

  He glanced out of the window at a moving figure, then shot abruptly tothe door and called to some one who was passing:

  "Hi, Jack!"

  A man in coast-guard uniform waved his hand.

  "How are you, Willie?" he shouted.

  "All right," was the reply. "How are you an' Sarah Libbie makin' out?"

  "Same as ever."

  "You ain't said nothin' to her yet?"

  Robert Morton saw the burly fellow in the road sheepishly dig his heelinto the sand.

  "N--o, not yet."

  "An' never will!" ejaculated the inventor returning wrathfully to theshop. "That feller," he explained as he resumed his seat, "has beenupwards, of twenty years tryin' to tell Sarah Libbie Lewis he's in lovewith her. He knows it an' so does she, but somehow he just can't putthe fact into words. I'm clean out of patience with him. Why, one dayhe actually had the face to come in here an' ask me to tell her--_me_!What do you think of that?"

  Robert Morton chuckled at his companion's rage.

  "Did you?"

  "Did I?" repeated Willie with scorn. "Can you see me doin' it? No,siree! I just up an' told Jack Nickerson if he warn't man enough to dohis own courtin' he warn't man enough for any self-respectin' woman tomarry. An' furthermore, I said he needn't step foot over the sill ofthis shop 'till he'd took some action in the matter. That hit himpretty hard, I can tell you, 'cause he used to admire to come in herean' set round whenever he warn't on duty. But he saw I meant it, an'he ain't been since."

  The old man paused.

  "I kinder bit off my own nose when I took that stand," he admitted, anintonation of regret in his tone, "'cause Jack's mighty good company.Still, there was nothin' for it but firm handlin'."

  "How long ago did you cast him out?" Bob asked with a chuckle.

  "Oh, somethin' over a week or ten days ago," was the reply. "I thoughthe might have made some progress by now. But I ain't given up hope ofhim yet. He's been sorter quiet the last two times I've seen him, an'I figger he's mullin' things over, an' mebbe screwin' up his courage."

  The room was still save for the purr of the plane.

  "I suppose you will be marrying Miss Hathaway off some day," observedBob a trifle self-consciously, without raising his eyes from his work.

  "You bet I won't," came emphatically from the old inventor. "I've gotsome courage but not enough for that. You see, the man that marriesher has got to have the nerve to face the whole village--brave ZenasHenry, the three captains, an' Abbie Brewster, besides winnin' the girlherself. 'Twill be some contract. No, you can be mortal sure I shan'tgo meddlin' in no such love affair as that. Anyhow, I won't be needed,for any man that Delight Hathaway would look at twice will be perfectlycapable of meetin' all comers; don't you worry."

  With this dubious comfort Willie stamped with spirit out of the shop.